Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof

ABSTRACT

There has been a problem that the manufacturing process is complicated and the number of processes is increased when a TFT with an LDD structure or a TFT with a GOLD structure is formed. In a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, after low concentration impurity regions ( 24, 25 ) are formed in a second doping process, a width of the low concentration impurity region which is overlapped with the third electrode ( 18   c ) and a width of the low concentration impurity region which is not overlapped with the third electrode can be freely controlled by a fourth etching process. Thus, in a region overlapped with the third electrode, a relaxation of electric field concentration is achieved and then a hot carrier injection can be prevented. And, in the region which is not overlapped with the third electrode, the off-current value can be suppressed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device comprising acircuit composed of thin film transistors (hereinafter referred to asTFTs) and a manufacturing method thereof, and for example, anelectro-optical device which is represented by a liquid crystal displaypanel, an EL (electro luminescence) display device, an EC displaydevice, and the like, and an electronic device in which such anelectro-optical device is mounted as a part.

Note that, in this specification, the semiconductor device representsall devices which can operate utilizing a semiconductor characteristic,and thus an electro-optical device, a semiconductor circuit, and anelectronic device are all semiconductor devices.

2. Description of the Related Art

Recently, a development of a semiconductor device with a large areaintegrated circuit formed by a thin film transistor (TFT), which isformed using a semiconductor thin film (several to several hundreds ofnm in thickness) formed on a substrate with an insulating surface, hasbeen progressing. An active matrix liquid crystal display device, an ELdisplay device, and a contact type image sensor are known as typicalexamples. In particular, Since a TFT using a crystalline silicon film(typically, a polysilicon film) as an active layer (hereinafter referredto as polysilicon TFT) has a high field effect mobility, it can be alsoused for forming various functional circuits.

For example, in the active matrix liquid crystal display device, a pixelcircuit for performing image display in respective functional blocks anda driver circuit (composed of a shift register circuit, a level shiftercircuit, a buffer circuit, a sampling circuit, and the like, which arebased on a CMOS circuit) for controlling the pixel circuit, are formedon a single substrate.

In the pixel circuit of the active matrix liquid crystal display device,the TFT (pixel TFT) is disposed in each of several tens to severalmillions of pixels, and a pixel electrode is provided in the respectivepixel TFTs. A counter electrode is provided at the side of a opposingsubstrate with liquid crystal between the pixel electrode and thecounter electrode. Thus, a kind of a capacitor using liquid crystal as adielectric is formed. Then, a voltage applied to each of the pixels iscontrolled by a switching operation of the TFT. Thus, the liquid crystalis driven by controlling control an amount of charges to the capacitor,and an amount of transmitted light is controlled to display an image.

The pixel TFT is an n-channel type TFT, and is used as a switchingelement for applying a voltage to the liquid crystal and driving it.Since the liquid crystal is driven by an alternating current, a systemcalled a frame inversion drive is employed in many cases. In thissystem, in order to keep consumption power low, it is important that anoff-current value (drain current flowing when the TFT is in an offstate) is sufficiently kept low as a characteristic required for thepixel TFT.

A low concentration drain (lightly doped drain: LDD) structure is knownas a TFT structure for reducing the off-current value. It is requiredfor forming this structure that an impurity element is added with a lowconcentration to a region between a channel forming region and a sourceregion, or the channel forming region and a drain region, to which theimpurity element is added with a high concentration, and the region isreferred to as an LDD region. Further, a so-called GOLD (gate-drainoverlapped LDD) structure, in which the LDD region is disposed tooverlap with a gate electrode through a gate insulating film, is knownas a means for preventing a reduction in an on-current value due to ahot carrier. It is known that such a structure relaxes a high electricfield near the drain region to prevent a hot carrier injection and thusis effective to prevent a degradation phenomenon.

Here, there is a problem that the off-current value becomes larger thanthat in the general LDD structure although the GOLD structure has alarge effect for preventing the degradation of the on-current value.Thus, this GOLD structure is not preferred for applying the pixel TFT.On the other hand, although the general LDD structure has a large effectfor suppressing an increase of the off-current value, an effect forrelaxing concentration of an electric field near the drain region toprevent the degradation due to a hot carrier injection is small.Therefore, in the semiconductor device which has a plurality ofintegrated circuits, such as the active matrix liquid crystal displaydevice, the above problems are made clear particularly in thecrystalline silicon TFT as the characteristics are improved aperformance required for the active matrix liquid crystal display deviceare improved.

Conventionally, when the TFT with the LDD structure or the TFT with theGOLD structure is formed, there is a problem that these manufacturingprocesses become complicated and the number of processes is increased.It is apparent that the increase in the number of processes causes notonly an increase of a manufacturing cost, but also a reduction in amanufacturing yield.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a technique for solving the above problems, andan object of the present invention is to realize, in an electro-opticaldevice and a semiconductor device which are represented by an activematrix liquid crystal display device manufactured using TFTs, animprovement of an operation characteristic and reliability of thesemiconductor device, low consumption power, and a reduction in amanufacturing cost and an improvement of a manufacturing yield due to areduction in the number of processes.

To realize the reduction in the manufacturing cost and the improvementof the manufacturing yield, it is considered as one means that thenumber of processes is reduced. Concretely, the number of photomasksrequired for manufacturing the TFTs is reduced. The photomask is usedfor forming a resist pattern as a mask on a substrate in an etchingprocess in a photolithography technique. Thus, using one photomask meansthat processes such as resist peeling, washing, and drying, except forprocesses such as film formation and etching, are added before and afterthe etching process, and complicated processes such as resistapplication, prebaking, exposure, development, and postbaking areperformed in the photolithography process.

The present invention is characterized in that the number of photomasksis made less than conventionally, and thus the TFTs are manufactured bymanufacturing processes as mentioned below. Note that one example of amanufacturing method of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

A manufacturing method of the present invention disclosed in thisspecification, comprises:

a first step of forming a semiconductor layer 12 on an insulatingsurface;

a second step of forming an insulating film 13 on the semiconductorlayer 12;

a third step of forming a first electrode made from a lamination of afirst conductive layer 18 a with a first width (W1) and a secondconductive layer 17 b, on the insulating film 13;

a fourth step of adding an impurity element to the semiconductor layer12 using the first electrode as a mask to form high concentrationimpurity regions 20 and 21;

a fifth step of etching the second conductive layer 17 b to form asecond electrode made from a lamination of the first conductive layer 18b with the first width (W1) and the second conductive layer 17 c with asecond width (W2);

a sixth step of adding the impurity element to the semiconductor layer12 using the second conductive layer as a mask to form low concentrationimpurity regions 24 and 25; and

a seventh step of etching the first conductive layer 18 b to form athird electrode made from a lamination of the first conductive layer 18c with a third width (W3) and the second conductive layer 17 c with thesecond width (W2).

In the above manufacturing method, a heat-resistant conductive materialis used as a material for forming the first conductive film and thesecond conductive film. Typically, the first conductive film and thesecond conductive film are made of one element selected from the groupconsisting of tungsten (W), tantalum (Ta), and titanium (Ti), or acompound or an alloy containing the selected element.

In the above third step, the first electrode has a shape with athickness gradually increasing from the end to the inside in an edge, aso-called taper shape.

In order to rapidly etch the first conductive film and the secondconductive film with high precision, which are made of theheat-resistant conductive material, and to form the edges into thetapered shape, a dry etching method using high density plasma isapplied. An etching apparatus using a microwave or inductively coupledplasma (ICP) is suitable to generate the high density plasma. Inparticular, the ICP etching apparatus is easy to control the plasma andcan be used for a large area substrate to be processed.

A plasma processing method and a plasma processing apparatus aredisclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 9-293600. Inthis document, a method of applying high frequency power to amulti-spiral coil through an impedance matching device to form plasma isdescribed as a means for performing plasma processing with highprecision. The multi-spiral coil is constructed such that four spiralshaped coil portions are connected with each other in parallel. Here,the length of the respective coil portions is set to be a quarter of thewavelength of the high frequency power. Further, a separate highfrequency power is also applied to a lower electrode for holding anobject to be processed to provide a bias voltage.

When such an etching apparatus using the ICP to which the multi-spiralcoil is applied is used, an angle of a taper portion (taper angle) islargely changed depending on bias power applied to a substrate side.When the bias voltage is further increased and a pressure is changed,the angle of the taper portion can be changed in a range of 5° to 45°.

Also, in the above fourth step, in order to form the high concentrationimpurity regions 20 and 21 in a self-aligning manner, a method ofaccelerating the ionized impurity element with an electric field to addto the semiconductor layer through a gate insulating film is used. Inthe present invention, a film, including an insulating film which isprovided in contact with the first electrode and the semiconductor layerand between them, and other insulating films which extend from the aboveinsulating film to a peripheral region, is referred to as the gateinsulating film. In this specification, the above method of adding theimpurity element is called “a through dope method” as a matter ofconvenience.

Note that, in this specification, the impurity element represents animpurity element (phosphorus or arsenic) for imparting an n-typeconductivity to a semiconductor or an impurity (boron) for imparting ap-type conductivity to the semiconductor.

Also, in the above fifth step, by the etching apparatus using the ICP,the second conductive layer is selectively etched so that the secondwidth (W2) of the second conductive layer 17C composing the secondelectrode is narrower than the first width (W1). Further, the taperangle in the edge of the first conductive layer in the second electrodeis set to be smaller than that in the edge of the second conductivelayer.

The present invention is characterized in that, in the above sixth stepafter the second electrode with such a shape is formed, the lowconcentration impurity regions 24 and 25, in which the concentration ofthe impurity element is continuously increased as the distance from thechannel forming region increases, are formed in the semiconductor layerlocated under the taper portion (formed with the taper shape) of thefirst conductive layer composing the second electrode using the throughdope method. Note that a concentration difference in the lowconcentration impurity regions is hardly produced although theconcentration is continuously increased.

Thus, in order to form the low concentration impurity regions 24 and 25with a gentle concentration gradient in a self-aligning manner, theionized impurity element is accelerated with the electric field to addto the semiconductor layer through the taper portion of the firstconductive layer composing the second electrode and the gate insulatingfilm. Therefore, when the through dope method is applied to the taperportion of the first conductive layer composing the second electrode,the concentration of the impurity element added to the semiconductorlayer can be controlled depending on the thickness of the taper portionof the first conductive layer, and then the low concentration impurityregions 24 and 25, in which the concentration of the impurity elementgradually changes along the channel length direction of the TFT, can beformed.

Note that, immediately after the sixth step using the above throughdoping method, the low concentration impurity regions 24 and 25 areoverlapped with the taper portions of the first conductive layercomposing the second electrode through the gate insulating film.

Also, in the above seventh step, the taper portion of the firstconductive layer is selectively etched. The etching in the seventh stepis an etching using a RIE method, and is different from an etchingmethod used in the third step and the fifth step. Note that, the etchingis not limited to the RE method. If a suitable condition is selected,the etching can be performed using a dry etching apparatus of the ICPsystem, or the etching using the RIE method after using the ICP methodcan be performed. By this seventh step, the taper angle of the firstconductive layer in the third electrode becomes substantially equal tothat of the first conductive layer in the second electrode. Also, thethird width (W3) is set to be narrower than the first width (W1) andwider than the second width (W2). Further, the insulating film isremoved simultaneously in the seventh step to expose portions of thehigh concentration impurity regions.

Note that, immediately after the above seventh step, the respective lowconcentration impurity regions can be divided into a region 25 a whichis overlapped with the taper portion of the first conductive layercomposing the third electrode through the gate insulating film, and aregion 25 b which is not overlapped with the taper portion of the firstconductive layer composing the third electrode through the gateinsulating film.

Also, the third width (W3) can be freely controlled by suitably changingan etching condition. Thus, according to the present invention, thewidth of the low concentration impurity region which is overlapped withthe third electrode and the width of the low concentration impurityregion which is not overlapped with the third electrode can be freelycontrolled by suitably changing the etching condition in the seventhstep. Note that the low concentration impurity region has a gentleconcentration gradient regardless of the width of the third electrode.In the region which is overlapped with the third electrode, a hotcarrier injection can be prevented since a relaxation of the electricfield concentration is achieved. Also, in the region which is notoverlapped with the third electrode, an increase of the off-currentvalue can be suppressed.

In the above manufacturing method, a first photolithography process isperformed in the first step and a second photolithography process isperformed in the third step. However, in the other steps (the fourthstep to the seventh step), a photolithography process is not performedsince a resist mask which has been used in the second photolithographyprocess is used as it is.

Therefore, after the above seventh step, a third photolithographyprocess for forming a contact hole in an interlayer insulating film tobe formed and a fourth photolithography process for forming a sourceelectrode or a drain electrode which reaches the semiconductor layer,are performed, and thus the TFT can be manufactured.

As described above, although the number of photomasks is reduced,according to the present invention, a suitable TFT structure can beobtained. The structure of the present invention is represented below.

According to the present invention disclosed in this specification,there is provided a semiconductor device comprising a semiconductorlayer formed on an insulating surface, an insulating film formed on thesemiconductor layer, and a gate electrode formed on the insulating film,

characterized in that the gate electrode has a lamination structure inwhich a first conductive layer with a first width (corresponding to W3in FIG. 2) is a lower layer and a second conductive layer with a secondwidth (corresponding to W2 in FIG. 2) which is narrower than the firstwidth is an upper layer, and

the semiconductor layer has a channel forming region which is overlappedwith the second conductive layer, a low concentration impurity regionwhich is partially overlapped with the first conductive layer, and asource region and a drain region which are comprised of highconcentration impurity regions.

Further, in the above structure, it is characterized in that the lowconcentration impurity region is located between the channel formingregion and the source region, or between the channel forming region andthe drain region.

Further, in the above structure, it is characterized in that an endportion of the first conductive layer has a taper shape.

Moreover, in the above structure, it is characterized in that the endportion of the first conductive layer is located between the channelforming region and the source region, or between the channel formingregion and the drain region, through the insulating film.

Further, in the above structure, it is characterized in that a filmthickness of a region of the insulating film which is overlapped withthe low concentration impurity region becomes thinner as a distance fromthe channel region is larger.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 3, the present invention is characterizedin that, in the low concentration impurity region 25 provided betweenthe channel forming region 26 and the drain region 23, the concentrationgradient is formed such that the concentration of the impurity elementfor imparting a conductivity type is gradually increased as the distancefrom the drain region decreases, and the low concentration impurityregion 25 with a gentle concentration gradient includes the region (GOLDregion) 25 a which is overlapped with the gate electrode 18 c and theregion (LDD region) 25 b which is not overlapped with the gate electrode18 c.

Note that, in this specification, the low concentration impurity regionwhich is overlapped with the gate electrode through the insulating filmis called the GOLD region, and the low concentration impurity regionwhich is not overlapped with the gate electrode is called the LDDregion.

Also, the present invention is characterized in that the electro-opticaldevice which represents the liquid crystal display device and the ELdisplay device is formed using the TFTs having the above structure.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that the number ofphotomasks is made less than that conventionally, and thus the TFTs aremanufactured by manufacturing processes as mentioned below. Note thatone example of a manufacturing method of the present invention is shownin FIGS. 23 and 24.

According to the present invention disclosed in this specification, asshown in FIGS. 23 and 24, there is provided a method of manufacturing asemiconductor device, comprising:

a first step of forming a semiconductor layer on an insulating surface;

a second step of forming an insulating film on the semiconductor layer;

a third step of forming a first electrode made from a lamination of afirst conductive layer with a first width (W1) and a second conductivelayer, on the insulating film;

a fourth step of etching the second conductive layer to form a secondelectrode made from a lamination of the first conductive layer with thefirst width (W1) and the second conductive layer with a second width(W2);

a fifth step of adding an impurity element to the semiconductor layerusing the second electrode as a mask to form a high concentrationimpurity region;

a sixth step of adding the impurity element to the semiconductor layerthrough the first conductive layer using the second conductive layer asa mask to form a low concentration impurity region; and

a seventh step of etching the first conductive layer to form a thirdelectrode made from a lamination of the first conductive layer with athird width (W3) and the second conductive layer with the second width(W2).

In the above manufacturing method, a heat-resistant conductive materialis used as a material for forming the first conductive film and thesecond conductive film. Typically, the first conductive film and thesecond conductive film are made of one element selected from the groupconsisting of tungsten (W), tantalum (Ta), and titanium (Ti), or acompound or an alloy containing the selected element.

In the above third step, the first electrode has a shape that is athickness gradually increasing from the end to the inside in an endportion, a so-called taper shape.

Also, in the above fourth step, the second conductive layer isselectively etched so that the second width (W2) of the secondconductive layer 17 c composing the second electrode is narrower thanthe first width (W1) using the etching apparatus using the ICP. Further,the taper angle in the end portion of the first conductive layer in thesecond electrode is set to be smaller than that in the end portion ofthe second conductive layer.

Subsequently, in the above sixth step, using the through dope method,the low concentration impurity regions 1024 and 1025, in which theconcentration of the impurity element is continuously increased as thedistance from the channel forming region increases, are formed in aself-aligning manner in the semiconductor layer located under the taperportion (formed with the taper shape) of the first conductive layercomposing the second electrode.

Note that, immediately after the sixth step using the above throughdoping method, the low concentration impurity regions 1024 and 1025 areoverlapped with the taper portion of the first conductive layercomposing the second electrode through the gate insulating film.

Also, in the above seventh step, the first conductive layer isselectively etched. As the etching in the seventh step, the etchingusing the RIE method, the etching using the ICP method, or the etchingusing the RIE method after using the ICP method may be suitablyperformed by an operator. By this seventh step, the taper angle of thefirst conductive layer in the third electrode becomes substantiallyequal to that of the first conductive layer in the second electrode.Also, the third width (W3) is set to be narrower than the first width(W1), and wider than the second width (W2). Here, although the example,in which the insulating film is removed simultaneously in the seventhstep to expose portions of the high concentration impurity regions, isdescribed, the present invention is not particularly limited to thisexample, and the insulating film may be left thin.

Note that, immediately after the above seventh step, the respective lowconcentration impurity regions can be divided into a region 1025 a whichis overlapped with the taper portion of the first conductive layercomposing the third electrode through the gate insulating film and aregion 1025 b which is not overlapped with the taper portion of thefirst conductive layer composing the third electrode through the gateinsulating film.

Also, the third width (W3) can be freely controlled by suitably changingan etching condition. Thus, according to the present invention, thewidth of the low concentration impurity region which is overlapped withthe third electrode and the width of the low concentration impurityregion which is not overlapped with the third electrode can be freelycontrolled by suitably changing the etching condition in the seventhstep. However, the low concentration impurity region has a gentleconcentration gradient regardless of the width of the third electrode.In the region which is overlapped with the third electrode, since arelaxation of electric field concentration is made, a hot carrierinjection can be prevented. In the region which is not overlapped withthe third electrode, an increase of the off-current value can besuppressed.

In the above manufacturing method, a first photolithography process isperformed in the first step and a second photolithography process isperformed in the third step. However, in other steps (the fourth step tothe seventh step), since a resist mask which has been used in the secondphotolithography process is used as it is, a photolithography process isnot performed.

Therefore, after the above seventh step, a third photolithographyprocess for forming a contact hole in an interlayer insulating film tobe formed and a fourth photolithography process for forming a sourceelectrode or a drain electrode, which reaches the semiconductor layer,are performed, and thus the TFT can be manufactured.

Also, in the above manufacturing process, although the highconcentration doping is performed in the fifth step and the lowconcentration doping is performed in the sixth step, the lowconcentration doping may be performed in the fifth step and the highconcentration doping may be performed in the sixth step. In this case, amanufacturing method of the present invention, comprises:

a first step of forming a semiconductor layer on an insulating surface;

a second step of forming an insulating film on the semiconductor layer;

a third step of forming a first electrode made from a lamination of afirst conductive layer with a first width (W1) and a second conductivelayer, on the insulating film;

a fourth step of etching the second conductive layer to form a secondelectrode made from a lamination of the first conductive layer with thefirst width (W1) and the second conductive layer with a second width(W2);

a fifth step of adding an impurity element to the semiconductor layerthrough the first conductive layer using the second conductive layer asa mask to form a low concentration impurity region;

a sixth step of adding the impurity element to the semiconductor layerusing the second electrode as a mask to form a high concentrationimpurity region; and

a seventh step of etching the first conductive layer to form a thirdelectrode made from a lamination of the first conductive layer with athird width (W3) and the second conductive layer with the second width(W2).

Also, according to the present invention disclosed in thisspecification, there is provided a method of manufacturing asemiconductor device, comprising:

a first step of forming a semiconductor layer on an insulating surface;

a second step of forming an insulating film on the semiconductor layer;

a third step of forming a first electrode made from a lamination of afirst conductive layer with a first width (W1) and a second conductivelayer, on the insulating film;

a fourth step of etching the second conductive layer to form a secondelectrode made from a lamination of the first conductive layer with thefirst width (W1) and the second conductive layer with a second width(W2);

a fifth step of adding an impurity element to the semiconductor layerusing the second conductive layer as a mask to form a low concentrationimpurity region and a high concentration impurity region; and

a sixth step of etching the first conductive layer to form a thirdelectrode made from a lamination of the first conductive layer with athird width (W3) and the second conductive layer with the second width(W2).

Thus, when the doping condition is suitably adjusted by a user, aprocess for forming the low concentration impurity region and the highconcentration impurity region can be performed by doping process onetime.

Also, one example of a manufacturing method of the present invention isshown in FIGS. 25A to 26D.

According to the present invention disclosed in this specification, asshown in FIGS. 25A to 26D, there is provided a method of manufacturing asemiconductor device, comprising:

a first step of forming a semiconductor layer on an insulating surface;

a second step of forming an insulating film on the semiconductor layer;

a third step of laminating a first conductive film and a secondconductive film on the insulating film;

a fourth step of forming a second conductive layer with a first width(X1);

a fifth step of adding an impurity element to the semiconductor layerusing the second conductive layer with the first width (X1) as a mask toform a high concentration impurity region;

a sixth step of etching the first conductive film to form a firstelectrode made from a lamination of a first conductive layer with asecond width (X2) and the second conductive layer with a third width(X3);

a seventh step of etching the second conductive layer to form a secondelectrode made from a lamination of the first conductive layer with thesecond width (X2) and the second conductive layer with a fourth width(X4);

an eighth step of adding the impurity element to the semiconductor layerthrough the first conductive layer using the second conductive layerwith the fourth width (X4) as a mask to form a low concentrationimpurity region; and

a ninth step of etching the first conductive layer to form a thirdelectrode made from a lamination of the first conductive layer with afifth width (X5) and the second conductive layer with the fourth width(X4).

Further, in the above respective manufacturing methods, it ischaracterized in that, after the step of forming the third electrode,the method further comprises the steps of:

forming a first interlayer insulating film for covering the thirdelectrode;

performing a first heat treatment for activating the impurity element inthe semiconductor layer;

forming a second interlayer insulating film for covering the firstinterlayer insulating film; and

performing a second heat treatment with a lower temperature than that ofthe first heat treatment after the formation of the second interlayerinsulating film.

Furthermore, one example of a manufacturing method of the presentinvention is shown in FIGS. 25A to 25C and FIGS. 27A to 27D.

According to the present invention disclosed in this specification, asshown FIGS. 25A to 25C and FIGS. 27A to 27D, there is provided a methodof manufacturing a semiconductor device, comprising:

a first step of forming a semiconductor layer on an insulating surface;

a second step of forming an insulating film on the semiconductor layer;

a third step of laminating a first conductive film and a secondconductive film on the insulating film;

a fourth step of forming a second conductive layer with a first width(X1);

a fifth step of adding an impurity element to the semiconductor layerusing the second conductive layer with the first width (X1) as a mask toform a high concentration impurity region;

a sixth step of etching the second conductive layer to form the secondconductive layer with a second width (Y2);

a seventh step of adding an impurity element to the semiconductor layerthrough the first conductive film using the second conductive layer withthe second width (Y2) as a mask to form a low concentration impurityregion; and

an eighth step of etching the first conductive film to form an electrodemade from a lamination of the first conductive layer with a third width(Y3) and the second conductive layer with the second width (Y2).

Moreover, it is characterized in that after the eighth step, themanufacturing method further comprises:

a ninth step of forming a first interlayer insulating film for coveringthe third electrode;

a tenth step of performing a first heat treatment for activating theimpurity element in the semiconductor layer;

an eleventh step of forming a second interlayer insulating film forcovering the first interlayer insulating film; and

a twelfth step of performing a second heat treatment with a lowertemperature than that of the first heat treatment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the accompanying drawings:

FIGS. 1A to 1D show a manufacturing process of a TFT;

FIGS. 2A to 2D show the manufacturing process of the TFT;

FIG. 3 shows a curve representing a concentration distribution of animpurity element;

FIG. 4 is a schematic structural view used in a simulation;

FIG. 5 is a graph of a simulation result (phosphorus doping);

FIG. 6 is a graph of a simulation result (voltage/current characteristicof TFT);

FIGS. 7A to 7C show a manufacturing process of an AM-LCD;

FIGS. 8A to 8C show the manufacturing process of the AM-LCD;

FIG. 9 shows the manufacturing process of the AM-LCD;

FIG. 10 is a cross sectional structural view of a transmission typeliquid crystal display device;

FIGS. 11A and 11B are external views of a liquid crystal panel;

FIGS. 12A to 12C show a manufacturing process of an AM-LCD;

FIGS. 13A to 13C show the manufacturing process of the AM-LCD;

FIG. 14 shows the manufacturing process of the AM-LCD;

FIG. 15 is a top view of a pixel;

FIG. 16 is a cross sectional structural view of a reflection type liquidcrystal display device;

FIGS. 17A and 17B are top views of the pixel in the manufacturingprocess;

FIG. 18 shows a structure of an active matrix EL display device;

FIGS. 19A and 19B show structures of the active matrix EL displaydevice;

FIGS. 20A to 20F show examples of electronic equipment;

FIGS. 21A to 21D show examples of electronic equipment;

FIGS. 22A to 22C show examples of electronic equipment;

FIGS. 23A to 23D show a manufacturing process of a TFT (Embodiment 7);

FIGS. 24A to 24D show the manufacturing process of the TFT (Embodiment7);

FIGS. 25A to 25D show a manufacturing process of a TFT (Embodiment 8);

FIGS. 26A to 26D show the manufacturing process of the TFT (Embodiment8);

FIGS. 27A to 27D show a manufacturing process of a TFT (Embodiment 9);

FIGS. 28A to 28D show a manufacturing process of an AM-LCD (Embodiment10);

FIGS. 29A to 29D show the manufacturing process of the AM-LCD(Embodiment 10);

FIG. 30 shows the manufacturing process of the AM-LCD (Embodiment 10);

FIG. 31 is a cross sectional structural view of a transmission typeliquid crystal display device (Embodiment 10);

FIG. 32 is a cross sectional structural view of a reflection type liquidcrystal display device (Embodiment 12); and

FIG. 33 is a cross sectional structural view of a reflection type liquidcrystal display panel with a light source (Embodiment 13).

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below withreference to FIGS. 1A to 3.

First, a base insulating film 11 is formed on a substrate 10. As thesubstrate 10, a glass substrate, a quartz substrate, and a siliconsubstrate may be used. Also, a metal substrate or a stainless substrate,on which an insulating film is formed, may be used. Further, a plasticsubstrate with a resistible heat resistance to a treatment temperaturemay be used.

Also, as the base insulating film 11, the base insulating film 11 madeof an insulating film such as a silicon oxide film, a silicon nitridefilm, or a silicon nitride oxide film is formed. Here, although anexample, in which a two-layered structure (11 a and 11 b) is used as thebase insulating film 11, is shown, a single layer film of the insulatingfilm or a lamination structure with two layers or more may be used. Notethat the base insulating film may be not formed.

Next, a semiconductor layer 12 is formed on the base insulating film 11.A crystalline semiconductor film obtained by using a knowncrystallization process (a laser crystallization method, a thermalcrystallization method, a thermal crystallization method using acatalyst such as nickel, or the like) is formed into a predeterminedshape pattern using, a first photomask after a semiconductor film withan amorphous structure is formed by a known method (a sputtering method,an LPCVD method, a plasma CVD method, or the like), then thesemiconductor film 12 is formed. The semiconductor film 12 is formedwith a thickness of 25 to 80 nm (preferably, 30 to 60 nm). Although amaterial of the crystalline semiconductor film is not limited to aspecial material, preferably the crystalline semiconductor film may beformed using silicon, silicon germanium (SiGe) alloy, or the like.

Next, an insulating film 13 covering the semiconductor film 12 isformed.

The insulating film 13 is formed as a single layer or a laminationstructure of an insulating film containing silicon with a thickness of40 to 150 nm by using the plasma CVD method or the sputtering method.Note that this insulating film 13 becomes a gate insulating film.

Next, a first conductive film 14 with a film thickness of 20 to 100 nmand a second conductive film 15 with a film thickness of 100 to 400 nmare laminated on the insulating film 13 (FIG. 1A). Here, the firstconductive film 14 made of TaN and the second conductive film 15 made ofW are laminated using the sputtering method. Note that, here, althoughthe first conductive film 14 is made of TaN and the second conductivefilm 15 is made of W, the first conductive film 14 and the secondconductive film 15 are not limited to those and may be formed using oneelement selected from the group consisting of Ta, W. Ti, Mo, Al, and Cu,or using an alloy material or a compound material containing the elementas its main constituent. Also, a semiconductor film, which isrepresented by a polycrystalline silicon film in which an impurityelement such as phosphorus has doped, may be used.

Next, a resist mask 16 a is formed using a second photomask, and then afirst etching process is performed using an ICP etching apparatus. Thesecond conductive film 15 is etched by this first etching process toobtain a second conductive layer 17 a with a taper portion (a portionwith a taper shape) in an end portion, as shown in FIG. 1B.

Here, an angle of the taper portion (taper angle) is defined as an angleformed by a substrate surface (horizontal surface) and a slantingportion of the taper portion. The taper angle of the second conductivelayer 17 a can be set in a range of 5° to 45° by selecting a suitableetching condition.

Next, using the resist mask 16 a as it is, a second etching process isperformed using the ICP etching apparatus. The first conductive film 14is etched in the second etching process to form a first conductive layer18 a as shown in FIG. 1C. The first conductive layer 18 a has a firstwidth (W1). Note that, in this second etching process, the resist mask,the second conductive layer, and the insulating film are slightly etchedto form a resist mask 16 b, a second conductive layer 17 b, and aninsulating film 19 a, respectively.

Note that, here, in order to suppress a film reduction of the insulatingfilm 13, the etching process is performed two times (the first etchingprocess and the second etching process). However, if an electrodestructure (lamination layer of the second conductive layer 17 b and thefirst conductive layer 18 a) as shown in FIG. 2C can be formed, thenumber of etching process is not limited to two times, and the etchingprocess may be performed one time.

Next, with the resist mask 16 b as it is, a first doping process isperformed. A through doping is performed through the insulating film 19a in the first doping process to form high concentration impurityregions 20 and 21 (FIG. 1D).

Next, using the resist mask 16 b, a third etching process is performedusing the ICP apparatus. In this third etching process, the secondconductive layer 17 b is etched to form the second conductive film 17 cas shown in FIG. 2A. The second conductive layer 17 c has a second width(W2). Note that, in this third etching process, the resist mask, thefirst conductive layer, and the insulating film are slightly etched toform a resist mask 16 c, a first conductive layer 18 b, and aninsulating film 19 b, respectively.

Next, with the resist mask 16 c as it is, a second doping process isperformed. A through doping is performed through the taper portion ofthe first conductive layer 18 b and the insulating film 19 b in thesecond doping process to form low concentration impurity regions 24 and25 (FIG. 2B). Note that, in this second doping process, the highconcentration impurity regions 20 and 21 are doped to form highconcentration impurity regions 22 and 23.

Next, with the resist mask 16 c as it is, a fourth etching process isperformed by an RIE apparatus. A portion of the taper portion of thefirst conductive layer 18 b is removed by this fourth etching process.Here, the first conductive layer 18 b with the first width (W1) becomesthe first conductive layer 18 c with a third width (W3). In the presentinvention, this first conductive layer 18 c and the second conductivelayer 17 c laminated thereon become a gate electrode. Note that, in thisfourth etching process, the insulating film 19 b is also etched to forman insulating film 19 c. Here, although an example, in which a portionof the insulating film is removed to expose the high concentrationimpurity regions is shown here, the present invention is not limited tothis example.

After that, the resist mask 16 c is removed to activate the impurityelement added to the semiconductor layer. Next, after an interlayerinsulating film 27 is formed, a contact hole is formed using a thirdmask and electrodes 28 and 29 are formed using a fourth mask.

Thus, the TFT with the structure as shown in FIG. 2D can be formed usingfour photomasks.

Also, the TFT formed by the present invention is characterized in that aconcentration difference is hardly produced in the low concentrationimpurity region 25 provided between a channel forming region 26 and adrain region 23, and the low concentration impurity region 25 has agentle concentration gradient and further a region 25 a which isoverlapped with a gate electrode 18 c (GOLD region) and a region 25 bwhich is not overlapped with the gate electrode 18 c (LDD region). Also,a peripheral portion of the insulating film 19 c, that is, the region 25b which is not overlapped with the gate electrode 18 c and upperportions of the high concentration impurity regions 20 and 21 become ataper shape.

Note that, a simulation is performed in the process of FIG. 2B. In thissimulation, a schematic structural view as shown in FIG. 4 is used. Afilm thickness of the semiconductor layer is 42 nm and a film thicknessof the gate electrode is 110 nm. The taper portion of the firstconductive layer is modeled as a step-shaped structure as shown in FIG.4. A case where phosphorus doping is performed with an acceleratingvoltage of 90 keV and a dosage of 1.4×10¹³ atoms/cm² is assumed.

The simulation result is shown in FIG. 5. In FIG. 5, it is shown thatthe concentration of the impurity element (phosphorus) is continuouslyincreased as the distance from the channel forming region is increased.Note that the concentration gradient is gentle and the concentrationdifference in the low concentration impurity regions is hardly produced.

Also, a voltage/current characteristic of the TFT which has theconcentration distribution obtained as FIG. 5 and is formed with theGOLD region with 0.5 μm in width and the LDD region with 0.5 μm in widthis shown in FIG. 6. Note that, from this simulation, a threshold value(Vth) of the TFT is 1.881 V, an S value is 0.2878 V/dec, an on-currentis 40 μA when Vds (a voltage difference between the source region andthe drain region)=1 V, the on-current is 119.6 μA when Vds=14 V.

The present invention constructed above will be further described indetail with the embodiments mentioned below.

Embodiment 1

Here, a method of simultaneously forming, on the same substrate, a pixelportion and TFTs (n-channel TFT and p-channel TFT) of a driver circuitprovided in the periphery of the pixel portion, is described in detailwith FIGS. 7A to 9.

First, in this embodiment, a substrate 100 is used, which is made ofglass such as barium borosilicate glass or aluminum borosilicate,represented by such as Corning #7059 glass and #1737 glass. Note that,as the substrate 100, there is no limitation provided that it is asubstrate with transmittance, and a quartz substrate may be used. Aplastic substrate with heat resistance to a process temperature of thisembodiment may also be used.

Then, a base film 101 formed of an insulating film such as a siliconoxide film, a silicon nitride film or a silicon nitride oxide film isformed on the substrate 100. In this embodiment, a two-layer structureis used as the base film 101. However, a single-layer film or alamination structure consisting of two or more layers of the insulatingfilm may be used. As a first layer of the base film 101, a siliconnitride oxide film 101 a is formed with a thickness of 10 to 200 nm(preferably 50 to 100 nm) with a plasma CVD method using SiH₄, NH₃, andN₂O as reaction gas. In this embodiment, the silicon nitride oxide film101 a (composition ratio Si=32%, O=27%, N=24% and H=17%) with a filmthickness of 50 nm is formed. Then, as a second layer of the base film101, a silicon nitride oxide film 101 b is formed and laminated into athickness of 50 to 200 nm (preferably 100 to 150 nm) with a plasma CVDmethod using SiH₄ and N₂O as reaction gas. In this embodiment, thesilicon nitride oxide film 101 b (composition ratio Si=32%, O=59%, N=7%and H=2%) with a film thickness of 100 nm is formed.

Subsequently, semiconductor layers 102 to 105 are formed on the basefilm. The semiconductor layers 102 to 105 are formed from asemiconductor film with an amorphous structure which is formed by aknown method (such as a sputtering method, an LPCVD method, or a plasmaCVD method), and is subjected to a known crystallization process (alaser crystallization method, a thermal crystallization method, or athermal crystallization method using a catalyst such as nickel). Thecrystalline semiconductor film thus obtained is patterned into desiredshapes to obtain the semiconductor layers. The semiconductor layers 102to 105 are formed into the thickness of from 25 to 80 nm (preferably 30to 60 nm). The material of the crystalline semiconductor film is notparticularly limited, but it is preferable to be formed of silicon, asilicon germanium (Si_(x)Ge_(1-x) (X=0.0001 to 0.02)) alloy, or thelike. In this embodiment, 55 nm thick amorphous silicon film is formedby a plasma CVD method, and then, a nickel-containing solution is heldon the amorphous silicon film. A dehydrogenation process of theamorphous silicon film is performed (500° C. for one hour), andthereafter a thermal crystallization process is performed (550° C. forfour hours) thereto. Further, to improve the crystallinity thereof, alaser annealing treatment is performed to form the crystalline siliconfilm. Then, this crystalline silicon film is subjected to a patterningprocess using a photolithography method, to obtain the semiconductorlayers 102 to 105.

Further, after the formation of the semiconductor layers 102 to 105, aminute amount of impurity element (boron or phosphorus) may be doped tocontrol a threshold value of the TFT.

Besides, in the case where the crystalline semiconductor film ismanufactured by the laser crystallization method, a pulse-oscillationtype or continuous-wave type excimer laser, YAG laser, or YVO₄ laser maybe used. In the case where those kinds of laser are used, it isappropriate to use a method in which laser light radiated from a laseroscillator is condensed by an optical system into a linear beam, and isirradiated to the semiconductor film. Although the conditions of thecrystallization should be properly selected by an operator, in the casewhere the excimer laser is used, a pulse oscillation frequency is set as30 Hz, and a laser energy density is set as 100 to 400 mJ/cm² (typically200 to 300 mJ/cm²). In the case where the YAG laser is used, it isappropriate that the second harmonic is used to with a pulse oscillationfrequency of 1 to 10 kHz and a laser energy density of 300 to 600 mJ/cm²(typically, 350 to 500 mJ/cm²). Then, laser light condensed into alinear shape with a width of 100 to 1000 μm, for example, 400 μm isirradiated to the whole surface of the substrate, and an overlappingratio (overlap ratio) of the linear laser light at this time may be setas 80 to 98%.

A gate insulating film 106 is then formed for covering the semiconductorlayers 102 to 105. The gate insulating film 106 is formed of aninsulating film containing silicon by a plasma CVD method or asputtering method into a film thickness of from 40 to 150 nm. In thisembodiment, the gate insulating film 106 is formed of a silicon nitrideoxide film into a thickness of 110 nm by a plasma CVD method(composition ratio Si=32%, O=59%, N=7%, and H=2%). Of course, the gateinsulating film is not limited to the silicon nitride oxide film, and another insulating film containing silicon may be used as a single layeror a lamination structure.

Besides, when the silicon oxide film is used, it can be possible to beformed by a plasma CVD method in which TEOS (tetraethyl orthosilicate)and O₂ are mixed and discharged at a high frequency (13.56 MHZ) powerdensity of 0.5 to 0.8 W/cm² with a reaction pressure of 40 Pa and asubstrate temperature of 300 to 400° C. Good characteristics as the gateinsulating film can be obtained in the manufactured silicon oxide filmthus by subsequent thermal annealing at 400 to 500° C.

Then, as shown in FIG. 7A, on the gate insulating film 106, a firstconductive film 107 with a thickness of 20 to 100 nm and a secondconductive film 108 with a thickness of 100 to 400 nm are formed andlaminated. In this embodiment, the first conductive film 107 of TaN filmwith a film thickness of 30 nm and the second conductive film 108 of a Wfilm with a film thickness of 370 nm are formed into lamination. The TaNfilm is formed by sputtering with a Ta target under a nitrogencontaining atmosphere. Besides, the W film is formed by the sputteringmethod with a W target. The W film may be formed by a thermal CVD methodusing tungsten hexafluoride (WF₆). Whichever method is used, it isnecessary to make the material have low resistance for use as the gateelectrode, and it is preferred that the resistivity of the W film is setto less than or equal to 20 μΩcm. By making the crystal grains large, itis possible to make the W film have lower resistivity. However, in thecase where many impurity elements such as oxygen are contained withinthe W film, crystallization is inhibited and the resistance becomeshigher. Therefore, in this embodiment, by forming the W film by asputtering method using a target with a purity of 99.9999% or 99.99%,and in addition, by taking sufficient consideration to preventimpurities within the gas phase from mixing therein during the filmformation, a resistivity of from 9 to 20 μΩcm can be realized.

Note that, in this embodiment, the first conductive film 107 is made ofTaN, and the second conductive film 108 is made of W, but the materialis not particularly limited thereto, and either film may be formed of anelement selected from the group consisting of Ta, W, Ti, Mo, Al, Cu, Cr,and Nd, or an alloy material or a compound material containing the aboveelement as its main constituent. Besides, a semiconductor film, typifiedby a polycrystalline silicon film doped with an impurity element such asphosphorus, may be used. Further, an AgPdCu alloy may be used. Besides,any combination may be employed such as a combination in which the firstconductive film is formed of tantalum (Ta) and the second conductivefilm is formed of W, a combination in which the first conductive film isformed of titanium nitride (TiN) and the second conductive film isformed of W, a combination in which the first conductive film is formedof tantalum nitride (TaN) and the second conductive film is formed ofAl, or a combination in which the first conductive film is formed oftantalum nitride (TaN) and the second conductive film is formed of Cu.

Next, masks 109 to 112 made of resist are formed using aphotolithography method, and a first etching process is performed inorder to form electrodes and wirings. This first etching process isperformed with the first and second etching conditions. In Thisembodiment, as the first etching conditions, an ICP (inductively coupledplasma) etching method is used, a gas mixture of CF₄, Cl₂ and O₂ is usedas an etching gas, the gas flow rate is set to 25/25/10 sccm, and plasmais generated by applying a 500 W RF (13.56 MHZ) power to a coil shapeelectrode under 1 Pa. A dry etching device with ICP (Model E645-□ICP)produced by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. is used here. A 150W RF (13.56 MHZ) power is also applied to the substrate side (test piecestage) to effectively apply a negative self-bias voltage. The W film isetched with the first etching conditions, and the end portion of thesecond conductive layer is formed into a tapered shape. In the firstetching conditions, the etching rate for W is 200.39 nm/min, the etchingrate for TaN is 80.32 nm/min, and the selectivity of W to TaN is about2.5. Further, the taper angle of W is about 26° with the first etchingconditions. Note that, the etching with the first etching conditions iscorresponding to the first etching process (FIG. 1B) described in theembodiment mode.

Thereafter, the first etching conditions are changed into the secondetching conditions without removing the masks 109 to 112 made of resist,a mixed gas of CF₄ and Cl₂ is used as an etching gas, the gas flow rateis set to 30/30 sccm, and plasma is generated by applying a 500 W RF(13.56 MHZ) power to a coil shape electrode under 1 Pa to therebyperform etching for about 30 seconds. A 20 W RF (13.56 MHZ) power isalso applied to the substrate side (test piece stage) to effectively anegative self-bias voltage. The W film and the TaN film are both etchedon the same order with the second etching conditions in which CF₄ andCl₂ are mixed. In the second etching conditions, the etching rate for Wis 58.97 nm/min, and the etching rate for TaN is 66.43 nm/min. Notethat, the etching time may be increased by approximately 10 to 20% inorder to perform etching without any residue on the gate insulatingfilm. In addition, etching with the second etching conditions iscorresponding to the second etching process (FIG. 1C) described in theembodiment mode.

In the first etching process, the end portions of the first and secondconductive layers are formed to have a tapered shape due to the effectof the bias voltage applied to the substrate side by adopting masks ofresist with a suitable shape. The angle of the tapered portions may beset to 15° to 45°. Thus, first shape conductive layers 113 to 116 (firstconductive layers 113 a to 116 a and second conductive layers 113 b to116 b) constituted of the first conductive layers and the secondconductive layers are formed by the first etching process. The width ofthe first conductive layers in a channel length direction corresponds toW1 shown in the embodiment mode. Reference numeral 117 denotes a gateinsulating film, and regions of the gate insulating film which are notcovered by the first shape conductive layers 113 to 116 are made thinnerby approximately 20 to 50 mm by etching.

Then, a first doping process is performed to add an impurity element forimparting an n-type conductivity to the semiconductor layer withoutremoving the mask made of resist (FIG. 7B). Doping may be carried out byan ion doping method or an ion injecting method. The condition of theion doping method is that a dosage is 1×10¹³ to 5×10¹³ atoms/cm², and anacceleration voltage is 60 to 100 keV. In this embodiment, the dosage is1.5×10¹³ atoms/cm² and the acceleration voltage is 80 keV. As theimpurity element for imparting the n-type conductivity, an element whichbelongs to group 15 of the periodic table, typically phosphorus (P) orarsenic (As) is used, and phosphorus is used here. In this case, theconductive layers 113 to 116 become masks to the impurity element forimparting the n-type conductivity, and high concentration impurityregions 118 to 121 are formed in a self-aligning manner. The impurityelement for imparting the n-type conductivity is added to the highconcentration impurity regions 118 to 121 in the concentration range of1.times.10.sup.20 to 1.times.10.sup.21 atoms/cm.sup.3. Note that, thefirst doping process is corresponding to the first doping process (FIG.1D) described in the embodiment mode.

Thereafter, the second etching process is performed without removing themasks made of resist. Note that, one of chlorine gas such as Cl.sub.2,BCl.sub.3, SiCl.sub.4 or CCl.sub.4, fluorine gas such as CF.sub.4,SF.sub.6 or NF.sub.3, and O.sub.2, and a mixed gas including the abovegas as its main constituent may be used as etching gas used in the firstetching process and the second etching process. Here, a mixed gas ofCF.sub.4, Cl.sub.2 and O.sub.2 is used as an etching gas, the gas flowrate is set to 25/25/10 sccm, and plasma is generated by applying a 500W RF (13.56 MHZ) power to a coil shape electrode under 1 Pa to therebyperform etching. A 20 W RF (13.56 MHZ) power is also applied to thesubstrate side (test piece stage) to effectively apply a negativeself-bias voltage. In the second etching process, the etching rate for Wis 124.62 nm/min, the etching rate for TaN is 20.67 nm/min, and theselectivity of W to TaN is 6.05. Accordingly, the W film is selectivelyetched. The taper angle of W is 70.degree. in the second etching. Secondconductive layers 122 b to 125 b are formed by the second etchingprocess. On the other hand, the first conductive layers 113 a to 116 aare hardly etched, and first conductive layers 122 a to 125 a areformed. Note that, the second etching process here is corresponding tothe third etching process (FIG. 2A) described in the embodiment mode.Further, the width of the second conductive layers in the channel lengthdirection is corresponding to W2 shown in the embodiment mode.

Next, a second doping process is performed and the state of FIG. 7C isobtained. Second conductive layers 122 b to 125 b are used as masks toan impurity element, and doping is performed such that the impurityelement is added to the semiconductor layer below the tapered portionsof the first conductive layers. In this embodiment, phosphorus (P) isused as the impurity element, and plasma doping is performed with thedosage of 3.5.times.10.sup.12 atoms/cm.sup.2 and the accelerationvoltage of 90 keV. Thus, low concentration impurity regions 126 to 129,which overlap with the first conductive layers, are formed in aself-aligning manner. The concentration of phosphorus (P) in the lowconcentration impurity regions 126 to 129 is 1.times.10.sup.17 to1.times.10.sup.18 atoms/cm.sup.3, and has a gentle concentrationgradient in accordance with the film thickness of the tapered portionsof the first conductive layers. Note that, in the semiconductor layerthat overlaps with the tapered portions of the first conductive layers,the concentration of the impurity element slightly falls from the endportions of the tapered portions of the first conductive layers towardthe inner portions. The concentration, however, keeps almost the samelevel. Further, the impurity element is added to the high concentrationimpurity regions 118 to 121 to form high concentration impurity regions130 to 133. Note that, the second doping process here is correspondingto the second doping process (FIG. 2B) described in the embodiment mode.

Thereafter, a third etching process is performed without removing themasks made of resist. The tapered portions of the first conductivelayers are partially etched to thereby reduce the regions that overlapwith the semiconductor layer in the third etching process. Here,CHF.sub.3 is used as an etching gas, and a reactive ion etching method(RIE method) is used. In This embodiment, the third etching process isperformed with the chamber pressure of 6.7 Pa, the RF power of 800 W,the CHF.sub.3 gas flow rate of 35 sccm. Thus, first conductive layers138 to 141 are formed (FIG. 8A). Note that, the third etching processhere is corresponding to the fourth etching process (FIG. 2C) describedin the embodiment mode. Further, the width of the first conductivelayers in the channel length direction corresponds to W3 shown in theembodiment mode.

In the third etching process, the insulating film 117 is etched at thesame time, a part of the high concentration impurity regions 130 to 133is exposed, and insulating films 143 a to 143 c and 144 are formed. Notethat, in this embodiment, the etching condition by which the part of thehigh concentration impurity regions 130 to 133 is exposed is used, butit is possible that a thin layer of the insulating film is left on thehigh concentration impurity regions if the thickness of the insulatingfilm or the etching condition is changed.

In accordance with the third etching process, impurity regions (LDDregions) 134 a to 137 a are formed, which do not overlap with the firstconductive layers 138 to 141. Note that, impurity regions (GOLD regions)134 b to 137 b remain overlapped with the first conductive layers 138 to141.

The electrode formed of the first conductive layer 138 and the secondconductive layer 122 b becomes a gate electrode of an n-channel TFT of adriver circuit to be formed in the later process. The electrode formedof the first conductive layer 139 and the second conductive layer 123 bbecomes a gate electrode of a p-channel TFT of the driver circuit to beformed in the later process. Similarly, the electrode formed of thefirst conductive layer 140 and the second conductive layer 124 b becomesa gate electrode of an n-channel TFT of a pixel portion to be formed inthe later process, and the electrode formed of the first conductivelayer 141 and the second conductive layer 125 b becomes one ofelectrodes of a storage capacitor of the pixel portion to be formed inthe later process.

In accordance with the above processes, in this embodiment, thedifference between the impurity concentration in the impurity regions(GOLD regions) 134 b to 137 b that overlap with the first conductivelayers 138 to 141 and the impurity concentration in the impurity regions(LDD regions) 134 a to 137 a that do not overlap with the firstconductive layers 138 to 141 can be made small, thereby improving theTFT characteristics.

Next, the masks of resist are removed, masks 145 and 146 are newlyformed of resist, and a third doping process is performed. In accordancewith the third doping process, impurity regions 147 to 152 are formed,in which the impurity element imparting a conductivity (p-type) oppositeto the above conductivity (n-type) is added to the semiconductor layerthat becomes an active layer of the p-channel TFT (FIG. 8B). The firstconductive layers 139 and 141 are used as masks to the impurity element,and the impurity element that imparts the p-type conductivity is addedto thereby form impurity regions in a self-aligning manner. In thisembodiment, the impurity regions 147 to 152 are formed by an ion dopingmethod using diborane (B₂H₆). Note that, in the third doping process,the semiconductor layer to become the n-channel TFT is covered with themasks 145 and 146 formed of resist. Although phosphorus is added to theimpurity regions of the semiconductor layer to become the p-channel TFTat different concentrations in accordance with the first and seconddoping processes, the doping process is performed such that theconcentration of the impurity element imparting p-type conductivity isin the range of 2×10²⁰ to 2×10²¹ atoms/cm³ in any of the impurityregions. Thus, the impurity regions function as a source region and adrain region of the p-channel TFT with no problem. In this embodiment, apart of the semiconductor that becomes an active layer of the p-channelTFT is exposed, and thus, there is an advantage that an impurity element(boron) is easily added.

The doping process here may be carried out once or a plurality of times.For example, in the case of performing the doping twice, the firstdoping condition has an acceleration voltage of 5 to 40 keV to formimpurity regions 147 and 150, and the second doping condition has anacceleration voltage of 60 to 120 keV to form impurity regions 148, 149,151, and 152. Then, injection defect in the semiconductor layer can besuppressed, and further, it is possible that the concentrations of boronin the impurity regions 147 and 150 are made to be different from thatin the impurity regions 148, 149, 151, and 152 to improve freedom fordesigning.

In accordance with the above-described processes, the impurity regionsare formed in the respective semiconductor layers.

Subsequently, the masks 145 and 146 of resist are removed, and a firstinterlayer insulating film 153 is formed. This first interlayerinsulating film 153 is formed of an insulating film containing siliconby a plasma CVD method or a sputtering method into a thickness of 100 to200 nm. In this embodiment, a silicon nitride oxide film with a filmthickness of 150 nm is formed by a plasma CVD method. Of course, thefirst interlayer insulating film 153 is not particularly limited to thesilicon nitride oxide film, but an other insulating film containingsilicon may be formed into a single layer or a lamination structure.

Then, as shown in FIG. 8C, a step of activating the impurity elementsadded in the respective semiconductor layers is performed. This step iscarried out by thermal annealing using a furnace annealing oven. Thethermal annealing may be performed in a nitrogen atmosphere containingan oxygen content of 1 ppm or less, preferably 0.1 ppm or less, at 400to 700° C., typically 500 to 600° C. In this embodiment, a heattreatment at 550° C. for 4 hours is carried out. Note that, except thethermal annealing method, a laser annealing method, or a rapid thermalannealing method (RTA method) can be applied thereto.

Note that, in this embodiment, at the same time as the above activationprocess, nickel used as the catalyst in crystallization is gettered tothe impurity regions (130, 132, 147, 150) containing phosphorous at ahigh concentration. As a result, nickel concentration of thesemiconductor layer which becomes a channel forming region is mainlylowered. The TFT with a channel forming region thus formed has an offcurrent value decreased, and has high electric field mobility because ofgood crystallinity, thereby attaining satisfactory characteristics.

Further, an activation process may be performed before forming the firstinterlayer insulating film 153. However, in the case where a wiringmaterial used is weak to heat, it is preferable that the activationprocess is performed after an interlayer insulating film (an insulatingfilm containing silicon as its main ingredient, for example, siliconnitride oxide film) is formed to protect the wiring or the like as inthis embodiment.

In addition, heat treatment at 300 to 550° C. for 1 to 12 hours isperformed in an atmosphere containing hydrogen of 3 to 100%, to performa step of hydrogenating the semiconductor layers. In this embodiment,the heat treatment is performed at 410° C. for 1 hour in an atmospherecontaining hydrogen of about 3%. This step is a step of terminatingdangling bonds in the semiconductor layer with hydrogen in theinsulating film. As another means for hydrogenation, plasmahydrogenation (using hydrogen excited by plasma) may be carried out.

Besides, in the case of using a laser annealing method as the activationprocess, it is preferred to irradiate laser light such as an excimerlaser or a YAG laser after the hydrogenating process.

Next, a second interlayer insulating film 154 of an organic insulatingmaterial is formed on the first interlayer insulating film 153. In thisembodiment, an acrylic resin film with a film thickness of 1.6 μm isformed. Then, patterning is performed for forming a contact holesreaching the respective impurity regions 130, 132, 147 and 150.

Then, in a driver circuit 205, wirings 155 to 158 electrically connectedto the impurity region 130 or the impurity region 147, respectively, areformed. Note that, these electrodes are formed by patterning alamination film of a Ti film with a film thickness of 50 nm and an alloyfilm (alloy film of Al and Ti) with a film thickness of 500 nm.

Further, in a pixel portion 206, a connection electrode 160 and a sourceelectrode 159 are formed, which contact with the impurity region 132,and a connection electrode 161 is formed, which contacts with theimpurity region 150.

Next, a transparent conductive film is formed thereon with a thicknessof 80 to 120 nm, and a pixel electrode 162 is formed by patterning (FIG.9). An alloy of indium oxide and zinc oxide (In₂O₃—ZnO) and zinc oxide(ZnO) are also suitable materials for the transparent conductive film.Further, zinc oxide having gallium (Ga) added (ZnO:Ga) or the like maybe preferably used in order to improve transmittivity or conductivity ofvisual radiation.

Further, the pixel electrode 162 is formed so as to contact and overlapwith the connection electrode 160, and thus, an electrical connectionwith a drain region of a pixel TFT is formed. Moreover, an electricalconnection of the pixel electrode 162 to the semiconductor layer(impurity region 150), that functions as one of the electrodes forming astorage capacitor, is formed.

Note that, although an example of using a transparent conductive film asa pixel electrode is shown here, a reflection type display device can bemanufactured if a pixel electrode is formed using a conductive materialwith reflectivity. In the case, the pixel electrode can besimultaneously formed in the process of manufacturing electrodes, and itis preferable that a material with excellent reflectivity, such as afilm including Al or Ag as its main constituent or a lamination filmthereof, is used as a material for the pixel electrode.

In the manner as described above, the driver circuit 205 including ann-channel TFT 201 and a p-channel TFT 202, and the pixel portion 206including a pixel TFT 203 and a storage capacitor 204 can be formed onthe same substrate. In this specification, such a substrate is called anactive matrix substrate for convenience.

The n-channel TFT 201 of the driving circuit 205 includes a channelforming region 163, the low concentration impurity region 134 b (GOLDregion) overlapping with the first conductive layer 138 forming a partof the gate electrode, the low concentration impurity region 134 a (LDDregion) formed outside the gate electrode, and the high concentrationimpurity region 130 functioning as a source region or a drain region.The p-channel TFT 202 includes a channel forming region 164, an impurityregion 149 overlapping with the first conductive layer 139 forming apart of the gate electrode, an impurity region 148 formed outside thegate electrode, and the impurity region 147 functioning as a sourceregion or a drain region.

The pixel TFT 203 of the pixel portion 206 includes a channel formingregion 165, the low concentration impurity region 136 b (GOLD region)overlapping with the first conductive layer 140 forming the gateelectrode, a low concentration impurity region 136 a (LDD region) formedoutside the gate electrode, and the high concentration impurity region132 functioning as a source region or a drain region. Besides, theimpurity element imparting p-type conductivity is added to therespective semiconductor layers 150 to 152 functioning as one ofelectrodes of the storage capacitor 204. The storage capacitor 204 isformed from the electrodes 125 and 142 and the semiconductor layers 150to 152 and 166 with the insulating film 144 as a dielectric material.

Embodiment 2

In this embodiment, a process for manufacturing an active matrix liquidcrystal display device using the active matrix substrate manufactured inEmbodiment 1 will be described. The description is made with referenceto FIG. 10.

First, after the active matrix substrate with the state of FIG. 9 isobtained according to Embodiment 1, an orientation film 167 is formed onthe active matrix substrate of FIG. 9 to perform a rubbing process. Notethat, in this embodiment, before the formation of the orientation film167, an organic resin film such as an acrylic resin film is patterned toform a columnar spacer for keeping a gap between substrates in a desiredposition. Also, instead of the columnar spacer, a spherical spacer maybe distributed over the entire surface.

Next, a opposing substrate 168 is prepared. A color filter in which acolored layer 174 and a light shielding layer 175 are arrangedcorresponding to each pixel is provided in this opposing substrate 168.Also, a light shielding layer 177 is provided in a portion of a drivercircuit. A leveling film 176 for covering this color filter and thelight shielding layer 177 is provided. Next, a counter electrode 169made of a transparent conductive film is formed in a pixel portion onthe leveling film 176, and then an orientation film 170 is formed on theentire surface of the opposing substrate 168 to perform a rubbingprocess.

Then, the active matrix substrate in which the pixel portion and thedriver circuit are formed and the opposing substrate are adhered to eachother by using a sealing member 171. A filler is mixed with the sealingmember 171, and two substrate are adhered to each other with a uniforminterval by this filler and the columnar spacer. After that, a liquidcrystal material 173 is injected into a space between both substratesand then completely encapsulated by a sealing member (not shown). Aknown liquid crystal material may be used as the liquid crystal material173. Thus, the active matrix liquid crystal display device as shown inFIG. 10 is completed. If necessary, the active matrix substrate or theopposing substrate is cut with a predetermined shape. Also, apolarization plate and the like are suitably provided using a knowntechnique. And, an FPC is adhered to the active matrix liquid crystaldisplay device using a known technique.

A structure of a liquid crystal display panel thus obtained will bedescribed using a top view of FIG. 11. Note that the same referencesymbols are used for portions corresponding to those of FIG. 10.

The top view of FIG. 11A shows the state that the active matrixsubstrate and the opposing substrate 168 are adhered to each otherthrough the sealing member 171. In the active matrix substrate, anexternal input terminal 207 to which the pixel portion, the drivercircuit, and the FPC (flexible printed circuit) are adhered, a wiring208 for connecting the external input terminal 207 with an input portionof the respective circuits, and the like are formed. Also, the colorfilter and the like are formed in the opposing substrate 168.

A light shielding layer 177 a is provided in the opposing substrate sideso as to overlap with a gate wiring side driver circuit 205 a. Also, alight shielding layer 177 b is provided in the opposing substrate sideso as to overlap with a source wiring side driver circuit 205 b. In acolor filter 209 which is provided in the opposing substrate side on apixel portion 206, a light shielding layer and colored layers forrespective colors (red color (R), green color (G), blue color B) and areprovided corresponding to each pixel. Actually, a color display isformed using three colors, that is, the colored layer for the red color(R), the colored layer for the green color (G), and the colored layerfor the blue color B. Note that the colored layers for respective colorsare arbitrarily arranged.

Here, for a color display, the color filter 209 is provided in theopposing substrate. However, the present invention is not particularlylimited to this case, and in manufacturing the active matrix substrate,the color filter may be formed in the active matrix substrate.

Also, in the color filter, the light shielding layer is provided betweenadjacent pixels such that a portion except for a display region isshielded. The light shielding layers 177 a and 177 b are provided in aregion covering the driver circuit. However, when the liquid crystaldisplay device is incorporated into an electronic device as a displayportion thereof, the region covering the driver circuit is covered witha cover. Thus, the color filter may be constructed without the lightshielding layer. In manufacturing the active matrix substrate, the lightshielding layer may be formed in the active matrix substrate.

Also, without providing the light shielding layer, the colored layerscomposing the color filter may be suitably arranged between the opposingsubstrate and the counter electrode such that light shielding is made bya lamination layer laminated with a plurality of layers. Thus, theportion except for the display region (gaps between pixel electrodes)and the driver circuit may be light-shielded.

Also, the FPC which is composed of a base film 210 and a wiring 211 isadhered to the external input terminal by using an anisotropicconductive resin. Further, a reinforced plate is provided to increase amechanical strength.

FIG. 11B is a cross sectional view along a line A-A′ on the externalinput terminal 207 in FIG. 11A. An outside diameter of a conductiveparticle 214 is smaller than a pitch of a wiring 215. Thus, when theconductive particle is dispersed in an adhesive 212 with a suitableamount, an electrical connection with a corresponding wiring in the FPCside can be formed, without occurrence of a short circuit to adjacentwiring.

The liquid crystal display panel manufactured above can be used as thedisplay portion of various electronic equipment.

Embodiment 3

In this embodiment, a manufacturing method of an active matrix substratedifferent from that of Embodiment 1 will be described with reference toFIGS. 12A to 15, and FIGS. 17A and 17B. Although the transmission typedisplay device is formed in Embodiment 1, in this embodiment, it ischaracterized in that a reflection type display device is formed toreduce the number of masks compared with Embodiment 1.

First, in this embodiment, a substrate 400 is used, which is made fromglass, such as barium borosilicate glass or aluminum borosilicate glass,represented by Corning #7059 glass and #1737 glass. Note that, as thesubstrate 400, a quartz substrate, or a silicon substrate, a metalsubstrate, or a stainless substrate, on which an insulating film isformed, may be used as the replace. A plastic substrate having heatresistance to a process temperature of this embodiment may also be used.

Then, a base film 401 formed of an insulating film such as a siliconoxide film, a silicon nitride film or a silicon nitride oxide film isformed on the substrate 400. In this embodiment, a two-layer structureis used for the base film 401. However, a single-layer film or alamination structure consisting of two or more layers of the insulatingfilm may be used. As a first layer of the base film 401, a siliconnitride oxide film 401 a is formed into a thickness of 10 to 200 nm(preferably 50 to 100 nm) using SiH₄, NH₃, and N₂O as reaction gases bya plasma CVD method. In this embodiment, the silicon nitride oxide film401 a (composition ratio Si=32%, O=27%, N=24% and H=17%) having a filmthickness of 50 nm is formed. Then, as a second layer of the base film401, a silicon nitride oxide film 401 b is formed so as to be laminatedon the first layer with a thickness of 50 to 200 nm (preferably 100 to150 nm) using SiH₄ and N₂O as reaction gases by plasma CVD. In thisembodiment, the silicon nitride oxide film 401 b (composition ratioSi=32%, O=59%, N=7% and H=2%) having a film thickness of 100 nm isformed.

Subsequently, semiconductor layers 402 to 406 are formed on the basefilm 401. The semiconductor layers 402 to 406 are formed such that asemiconductor film having an amorphous structure formed by a knownmethod (a sputtering method, an LPCVD method, or a plasma CVD method) issubjected to a known crystallization process (a laser crystallizationmethod, a thermal crystallization method, or a thermal crystallizationmethod using a catalyst such as nickel) and the crystallinesemiconductor film thus obtained is patterned into desired shapes. Thesemiconductor layers 402 to 406 are formed into a thickness of from 25to 80 nm (preferably 30 to 60 nm). The material of the crystallinesemiconductor film is not particularly limited, but it is preferable toform the film using silicon, a silicon germanium (SiGe) alloy, or thelike. In this embodiment, a 55 nm thick amorphous silicon film is formedby a plasma CVD method, and then, nickel-containing solution is held onthe amorphous silicon film. A dehydrogenation process of the amorphoussilicon film is performed (500° C. for one hour), and thereafter athermal crystallization process is performed (550° C. for four hours)thereto. Further, to improve the crystallinity, laser annealing processis performed to form the crystalline silicon film. Then, thiscrystalline silicon film is subjected to a patterning process using aphotolithography method, to obtain the semiconductor layers 402 to 406.

Further, after the formation of the semiconductor layers 402 to 406, aminute amount of impurity element (boron or phosphorus) may be doped tocontrol a threshold value of the TFT.

Besides, in the case where the crystalline semiconductor film ismanufactured by the laser crystallization method, a pulse oscillationtype or continuous emission type excimer laser, YAG laser, or YVO₄ lasermay be used. In the case where those lasers are used, it is appropriateto use a method in which laser light radiated from a laser oscillator iscondensed into a linear beam by an optical system, and is irradiated tothe amorphous semiconductor film. Although the conditions of thecrystallization should be properly selected by an operator, in the casewhere the excimer laser is used, a pulse oscillation frequency is set to30 Hz, and a laser energy density is set from 100 to 400 mJ/cm²(typically 200 to 300 mJ/cm²). In the case where the YAG laser is used,it is appropriate that the second harmonic is used to set a pulseoscillation frequency from 1 to 10 kHz, and a laser energy density isset from 300 to 600 mJ/cm² (typically, 350 to 500 mJ/cm²). Then, laserlight condensed into a linear shape with a width of 100 to 1000 μm, forexample, 400 μm is irradiated to the whole surface of the substrate, andan overlapping ratio (overlap ratio) of the linear laser light at thistime may be set as 80 to 98%.

A gate insulating film 407 is then formed covering the semiconductorlayers 402 to 406. The gate insulating film 407 is formed of aninsulating film containing silicon by a plasma CVD or a sputteringmethod with a film thickness of from 40 to 150 nm. In this embodiment,the gate insulating film 407 is formed from a silicon nitride oxide filmwith a thickness of 110 nm by plasma CVD (composition ratio Si=32%,O=59%, N=7%, and H=2%). Of course, the gate insulating film is notlimited to the silicon nitride oxide film, and other insulating filmscontaining silicon may be formed into a single layer or a laminationstructure.

Besides, when the silicon oxide film is used, it can be formed by plasmaCVD in which TEOS (tetraethyl orthosilicate) and O₂ are mixed, with areaction pressure of 40 Pa, and at a substrate temperature of from 300to 400° C., and discharged at a high frequency (13.56 MHZ) power densityof 0.5 to 0.8 W/cm². The silicon oxide film thus manufactured can havegood characteristics as the gate insulating film by subsequent thermalannealing at 400 to 500° C.

Then, as shown in FIG. 12A on the gate insulating film 407, a firstconductive film 408 and a second conductive film 409 are formed intolamination to have a film thickness of 20 to 100 nm and 100 to 400 nm,respectively. In this embodiment, the first conductive film 408 made ofa TaN film with a film thickness of 30 nm and the second conductive film409 made of a W film with a film thickness of 370 nm are formed intolamination. The TaN film is formed by sputtering with a Ta target undera nitrogen containing atmosphere. Besides, the W film is formed by thesputtering method with a W target. The W film may be formed by a thermalCVD method using tungsten hexafluoride (WF₆). Whichever method is used,it is necessary to make the material have low resistance for use as thegate electrode, and it is preferred that the resistivity of the W filmis set to 20 μΩm or less. By making the crystal grains large, it ispossible to make the W film have lower resistivity. However, in the casewhere many impurity elements such as oxygen are contained within the Wfilm, crystallization is inhibited and the resistance becomes higher.Therefore, in this embodiment, by forming the W film by sputtering usinga target having a high purity (purity of 99.9999%), and in addition, bytaking sufficient consideration to prevent impurities within the gasphase from mixing therein during the film formation, a resistivity offrom 9 to 20 μΩcm can be realized.

Note that, in this embodiment, the first conductive film 408 is made ofTaN and the second conductive film 409 is made of W. However, the firstconductive film 408 and the second conductive film 409 are not limitedto those and then may be formed from one element selected from the groupconsisting of Ta, W, Ti, Mo, Al, Cu, Cr, and Nd, or using an alloymaterial or a compound material containing the above element as its mainconstituent. Also, a semiconductor film typified by a polycrystallinesilicon film in which an impurity element such as phosphorus has dopedmay be used. An AgPdCu alloy may be used. Further, a combination of thefirst conductive film made of a tantalum (Ta) film and the secondconductive film made of a W film, a combination of the first conductivefilm made of a titanium nitride (TiN) film and the second conductivefilm made of a W film, a combination of the first conductive film madeof a tantalum nitride (TaN) film and the second conductive film made ofan Al film, or a combination of the first conductive film made of thetantalum nitride (TaN) film and the second conductive film made of a Cufilm may be used.

Next, masks 410 to 415 made from resists are formed by using aphotolithography method, and then a first etching process for formingelectrodes and wirings is performed at first and second etchingconditions. In this embodiment, as the first etching condition, an ICP(inductively coupled plasma) etching method is used, CF₄, Cl₂, and O₂are used as etching gases, and a gas flow rate is set to be 25/25/10(sccm). And, RF power (13.56 MHZ) of 500 W is applied to a coil shapeelectrode at a pressure of 1 Pa to generate plasma. Thus, an etching isperformed. Here, a dry etching device using ICP (Model E645-□ICP),produced by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. is used. Also, RFpower (13.56 MHZ) of 150 W is applied to a substrate side (sample stage)to effectively apply a negative self-bias voltage. Under this firstetching condition, the W film is etched such that the end portion of thesecond conductive layer becomes a taper shape. A top view of the pixelportion observed by using an optical microscope immediately after theetching with the first etching condition is shown in FIG. 17A.

After that, without removing the masks 410 to 415 made from resists, thefirst etching condition is changed into the second etching condition,CF₄ and Cl₂ are used as etching gases, and a gas flow rate is set to be30/30 (sccm). And, RF power (13.56 MHZ) of 500 W is applied to a coiltype electrode at a pressure of 1 Pa to generate plasma. Thus, anetching is performed for about 30 seconds. Also, RF power (13.56 MHZ) of20 W is applied to the substrate side (sample stage) to effectivelyapply a negative self-bias voltage. Under the second etching conditionthat CF₄ and Cl₂ are mixed with each other, both the W film and the TaNfilm are etched with the same degree. Note that, in order to perform theetching without any residue on the gate insulating film, an etching timemay be increased by about 10 to 20%.

In the first etching process, when the mask made from the resist with asuitable shape is used, the end portions of the first conductive layerand the second conductive layer become a taper shape, due to an effectof the bias voltage applied to the substrate side. An angle of the taperportion is 15° to 45°. Thus, first shape conductive layers 417 to 422(first conductive layers 417 a to 422 a and second conductive layers 417b to 422 b) constituted of the first conductive layers and the secondconductive layers are formed by the first etching process. Referencenumeral 416 is a gate insulating film. A region which is not coveredwith the first shape conductive layers 417 to 422 is etched by about 20to 50 nm to form a thinned region. Also, a top view of the pixel portionobserved by using an optical microscope immediately after the etchingwith the second etching condition is shown in FIG. 17B.

Then, without removing the mask made from the resist, a first dopingprocess is performed to add an impurity element for imparting an n-typeconductivity to the semiconductor layer (FIG. 12B). The doping processmay be performed with an ion doping method or an ion injecting method.As a condition in the ion dope method, a dosage is 1×10¹³ to 5×10¹⁵atoms/cm² and an acceleration voltage is 60 to 100 keV. In thisembodiment, the dose is set to 1.5×10¹⁵ atoms/cm² and the acceleratingvoltage is set to 80 keV. As the impurity element for imparting then-type conductivity, an element belonging to Group 15, typicallyphosphorus (P) or arsenic (As) is used. In this doping process,phosphorus (P) is used. In this case, the conductive layers 417 to 421become masks against the impurity element for imparting the n-typeconductivity, and thus high concentration impurity regions 423 to 427are formed in a self-aligning manner. The impurity element for impartingthe n-type conductivity is added to the high concentration impurityregions 423 to 427 in a concentration range of 1×10²⁰ to 1×10²¹atoms/cm³.

Next, a second etching process is performed without removing the masksmade from resists. Here, CF₄, Cl₂, and O₂ are used as etching gases toselectively etch the W film. At this time, first conductive layers 428 bto 433 b are formed by the second etching process. On the other hand,the second conductive layers 417 a to 422 a are hardly etched to formsecond conductive layers 428 a to 433 a. Next, a second doping processis performed to obtain the state of FIG. 12C. Doping is performed suchthat, when the second conductive layers 417 a to 422 a are used as masksagainst the impurity element, the impurity element is added to thesemiconductor layers under the taper portions of the first conductivelayers. Thus, impurity regions 434 to 438 overlapping with the firstconductive layers are formed. The concentration of phosphorus (P) thatis added to the impurity regions has a gentle concentration gradient inaccordance with the film thickness of the taper portions of the firstconductive layers. Note that, in the semiconductor layers overlappedwith the first conductive layers, although an impurity concentration isslightly reduced from the end portions of the taper portions of thefirst conductive layers toward the inner portions, substantially thesame degree of concentration is obtained. Also, the impurity element isadded to the impurity regions 423 to 427 to form impurity regions 439 to443.

Next, a third etching process is performed without removing the maskmade from the resist (FIG. 13A. In this third etching process, the taperportions of the first conductive layers are partially etched to reducethe regions overlapped with the semiconductor layers. The third etchingprocess is performed using CHF₃ as an etching gas by a reactive ionetching method (RIE method). First conductive layers 444 to 449 areformed by the third etching. Simultaneously, the insulating film 416 isalso etched to form insulating films 450 a to 450 d, and 451.

By the above third etching, impurity regions (LDD regions) 434 a to 438a which are not overlapped with the first conductive layers 444 to 448are formed. Note that impurity regions (GOLD regions) 434 b to 438 bremain overlapping with the first conductive layers 444 to 448.

By doing so, in This embodiment, the difference between the impurityconcentration in the impurity regions (GOLD regions) 434 b to 438 b thatoverlap with the first conductive layers 444 to 448 and the impurityconcentration in the impurity regions (LDD regions) 434 a to 438 a thatdo not overlap with the first conductive layers 444 to 448 can be madesmall, thereby improving the reliability.

Next, the masks formed from resist are removed, masks 452 to 454 arenewly formed from resist, and a third doping process is performed. Inaccordance with the third doping process, impurity regions 455 to 460are formed, in which the impurity element (p-type) imparting aconductivity opposite to the one conductivity (n-type) is added to thesemiconductor layer that becomes an active layer of the p-channel TFT.The first conductive layers 445 and 448 are used as masks against theimpurity element, and the impurity element that imparts the p-typeconductivity is added, to thereby form impurity regions in aself-aligning manner. In This embodiment, the impurity regions 455 to460 are formed by an ion doping method using diborane (B₂H₆) (FIG. 13B).In the third doping process, the semiconductor layer forming then-channel TFT is covered with the masks 452 to 454 formed from resist.Although phosphorus is added to the impurity regions 455 and 460 atdifferent concentrations in accordance with the first and second dopingprocesses, the doping process is performed such that the concentrationof the impurity element imparting p-type conductivity is in the range of2×10²⁰ to 2×10²¹ atoms/cm³ in any of the impurity regions. Thus, theimpurity regions function as the source region and the drain region ofthe p-channel TFT so that no problem occurs. In This embodiment, a partof the semiconductor that becomes an active layer of the p-channel TFTis exposed, and thus, there is an advantage that an impurity element(boron) is easily added.

Through the above processes, the impurity regions are formed in therespective layers.

Subsequently, the masks 452 to 454 consisting of resist are removed, anda first interlayer insulating film 461 is formed. This first interlayerinsulating film 461 is formed of an insulating film containing siliconby a plasma CVD method or a sputtering method with a thickness of 100 to200 nm. In this embodiment, a silicon nitride oxide film with a filmthickness of 150 nm is formed by plasma CVD. Of course, the firstinterlayer insulating film 461 is not particularly limited to thesilicon nitride oxide film, and other insulating film containing siliconmay be formed into a single layer or a lamination structure.

Then, as shown in FIG. 13C, a step of activating the impurity elementsadded in the respective semiconductor layers is conducted. Thisactivation step is carried out by thermal annealing using an annealingfurnace. The thermal annealing may be performed in a nitrogen atmospherehaving an oxygen concentration of 1 ppm or less, preferably 0.1 ppm orless and at 400 to 700° C., typically 500 to 550° C. In this embodiment,a heat treatment at 500° C. for 4 hours is carried out. Note that, otherthan the thermal annealing method, a laser annealing method, or a rapidthermal annealing method (RTA method) can be applied thereto.

Note that, in this embodiment, at the same time with the aboveactivation process, nickel used as the catalyst for crystallization isgettered to the impurity regions 439, 441, 442, 455, and 458 containingphosphorous at high concentration. As a result, nickel concentration ofthe semiconductor layer which becomes a channel forming region is mainlylowered. The TFT having a channel forming region thus formed isdecreased in off current value, and has high electric field mobilitybecause of good crystallinity, thereby attaining satisfactorycharacteristics.

Further, an activation process may be performed before forming the firstinterlayer insulating film 461. However, in the case where the usedwiring material is weak to heat, it is preferable that the activationprocess is performed after an interlayer insulating film (containingsilicon as its main constituent, for example, silicon nitride film) isformed to protect the wiring or the like as in this embodiment.

In addition, heat treatment at 300 to 550° C. for 1 to 12 hours isperformed in an atmosphere containing hydrogen of 3 to 100% to perform astep of hydrogenating the semiconductor layers. In this embodiment, theheat treatment is performed at 410° C. for 1 hour in a nitrogenatmosphere containing hydrogen of about 3%. This step is a step ofterminating dangling bonds in the semiconductor layer by hydrogenincluded in the interlayer insulating film. As another means forhydrogenation, plasma hydrogenation (using hydrogen excited by plasma)may be carried out.

Also, in the case where a laser annealing method is used for anactivation process, it is desired that laser light of an excimer laser,a YAG laser or the like is irradiated after the hydrogenation.

Next, a second interlayer insulating film 462 made of an inorganicinsulating material or an organic insulating material is formed on thefirst interlayer insulating film 461. In this embodiment, an acrylicresin film with a film thickness of 1.6 μm is formed. The film with theviscosity of 10 to 1000 cp, preferably, 40 to 200 cp is used. Also, theacrylic resin film has convex and concave portions on its surface.

In this embodiment, in order to prevent the mirror reflection, convexand concave portions are formed on the surfaces of the pixel electrodesby forming the second interlayer insulating film with convex and concaveportions on the surface. Also, in order to attain light scatteringcharacteristics by forming the convex and concave portions on thesurfaces of the pixel electrodes, convex portions may be formed inregions below the pixel electrodes. In this case, since the samephotomask is used in the formation of the TFTs, the convex portions canbe formed without increasing the number of processes. Note that theconvex portion may be suitably provided in the pixel portion regionexcept for the wirings and the TFT portion on the substrate. Thus, theconvex and concave portions are formed on the surfaces of the pixelelectrodes along the convex and concave portions formed on the surfaceof the insulating film covering the convex portion.

Also, a film with the leveled surface may be used as the secondinterlayer insulating film 462. In this case, the following ispreferred. That is, after the formation of the pixel electrodes, convexand concave portions are formed on the surface with a process using aknown method such as a sandblast method or an etching method. Thus,since the mirror reflection is prevented and reflection light isscattered, whiteness is preferably increased.

Then, in a driver circuit 506, wirings 463 to 467 electrically connectedwith the respective impurity regions are formed. Note that those wiringsare formed by patterning a lamination film of a Ti film with a filmthickness of 50 nm and an alloy film (alloy film of Al and Ti) with afilm thickness of 500 nm.

Also, in a pixel portion 507, a pixel electrode 470, a gate wiring 469,and a connection electrode 468 are formed (FIG. 14). By this connectionelectrode 468, an electrical connection between a source wiring(lamination layer of the impurity region 443 b and the first conductivelayer 449) and the pixel TFT is formed. Also, an electrical connectionbetween the gate wiring 469 and the gate electrode of the pixel TFT isformed. With respect to the pixel electrode 470, an electricalconnection with the drain region 442 of the pixel TFT and an electricalconnection with the semiconductor layer 458 which functions as one ofelectrodes for forming a storage capacitor are formed. It is desiredthat a material having a high reflectivity, such as a film containing Alor Ag as its main constituent, or a lamination film thereof, is used forthe pixel electrode 470.

Thus, the driver circuit 506 having a CMOS circuit formed by ann-channel TFT 501 and a p-channel TFT 502 and an n-channel type TFT 503,and the pixel portion 507 having a pixel TFT 504 and a retainingcapacitor 505 can be formed on the same substrate. As a result, theactive matrix substrate is completed.

The n-channel type TFT 501 of the driver circuit 506 has a channelforming region 471, a low concentration impurity region (GOLD region)434 b overlapping with the first conductive layer 444 constituting aportion of the gate electrode, a low concentration impurity region (LDDregion) 434 a formed outside the gate electrode, and a highconcentration impurity region 439 which functions as the source regionor the drain region. The p-channel type TFT 502 forming the CMOS circuitby connecting with the n-channel type TFT 501 through an electrode 466has a channel forming region 472, an impurity region 457 overlappingwith the gate electrode, an impurity region 456 formed outside the gateelectrode, and a high concentration impurity region 455 which functionsas the source region or the drain region. The n-channel type TFT 503 hasa channel forming region 473, a low concentration impurity region (GOLDregion) 436 b overlapping with the first conductive layer 446constituting a portion of the gate electrode, a low concentrationimpurity region (LDD region) 436 a formed outside the gate electrode,and a high concentration impurity region 441 which functions as thesource region or the drain region.

The pixel TFT 504 of the pixel portion 507 includes a channel formingregion 474, the low concentration impurity region 437 b (GOLD region)overlapping with the first conductive layer 447 forming a part of thegate electrode, a low concentration impurity region 437 a (LDD region)formed outside the gate electrode, and the high concentration impurityregion 443 functioning as a source region or a drain region. Besides,impurity elements imparting p-type conductivity are added to therespective semiconductor layers 458 to 460 functioning as one of theelectrodes of the storage capacitor 505. The storage capacitor 505 isformed from the electrode (a lamination of 448 and 432 b) and thesemiconductor layers 458 to 460 using the insulating film 451 as adielectric member.

Further, in the pixel structure of this embodiment, an end portion ofthe pixel electrode is formed by arranging it so as to overlap with thesource wiring so that the gap between the pixel electrodes is shieldedfrom light without using a black matrix.

A top view of the pixel portion of the active matrix substratemanufactured in this embodiment is shown in FIG. 15. Note that, the samereference numerals are used to indicate parts corresponding FIGS. 12 to14. A dash line A-A′ in FIG. 14 corresponds to a sectional view takenalong the line A-A′ in FIG. 15. Also, a dash line B-B′ in FIG. 14corresponds to a sectional view taken along the line B-B′ in FIG. 15.

In addition, in accordance with the process steps of this embodiment,the number of photo masks needed for manufacturing the active matrixsubstrate may be made into five pieces. As a result, it can contributeto reduction in manufacturing steps, lowering the manufacturing cost,and improving the yield.

Embodiment 4

In this embodiment, a manufacturing process of a reflection type liquidcrystal display device from the active matrix substrate manufactured inaccordance with Embodiment 3 will be described hereinbelow. FIG. 16 isreferred to in an explanation thereof.

First, in accordance with Embodiment 3, an active matrix substrate in astate shown in FIG. 14 is obtained, and thereafter, an orientation film471 is formed at least on the pixel electrode 470 on the active matrixsubstrate of FIG. 14, and is subjected to a rubbing process. Note that,in this embodiment, before the formation of the orientation film 471, acolumnar spacer (not shown) for maintaining a gap between the substratesis formed at a desired position by patterning an organic resin film suchas an acrylic resin film. Further, spherical spacers may be scattered onthe entire surface of the substrate in place of the columnar spacer.

Next, an opposing substrate 479 is prepared. Colored layers 472, 473 anda leveling film 474 are formed on the opposing substrate 479. Thered-colored layer 472 and the blue-colored layer 473 are overlapped witheach other, thereby forming a light shielding portion. Note that, thered-colored layer and a green-colored layer may be partially overlappedwith each other to form a light shielding portion.

In this embodiment, the substrate as shown in Embodiment 3 is used.Thus, in FIG. 15 showing the top view of the pixel portion of Embodiment3, it is necessary to shield the light at least, a gap between the gatewiring 469 and the pixel electrode 470, a gap between the gate wiring469 and the connection electrode 468, and a gap between the connectionelectrode 468 and the pixel electrode 470. In this embodiment, therespective colored layers are arranged such that these gaps areoverlapped with a light shielding portion made from a lamination layerof the colored layers in light shielding positions, and then adhered tothe counter substrate.

Thus, without forming a light shielding layer such as a black mask, thenumber of processes can be reduced by shielding the light in the gapsbetween the respective pixel electrodes using the light shieldingportion made from the lamination layer of the colored layers.

Next, an opposing electrode 475 made from a transparent conductive filmis formed on a leveling film 474 in at least the pixel portion, and thenan orientation film 476 is formed on the entire surface of the countersubstrate to perform a rubbing processing.

Then, the active matrix substrate in which the pixel portion 506 and thedriver circuit 507 are formed and the counter substrate are adhered toeach other by using a sealing member 477. A filler is mixed with thesealing member 477, and two substrate are adhered to each other with auniform interval by this filler and the columnar spacer. After that, aliquid crystal material 478 is injected into a space between bothsubstrates and then completely sealed by a sealing agent (not shown). Aknown liquid crystal material may be used as the liquid crystal material478. Note that, since this embodiment is the reflection type, asubstrate interval becomes about a half that in Embodiment 1. Thus, thereflection type liquid crystal display device as shown in FIG. 16 iscompleted. If necessary, the active matrix substrate or the countersubstrate is cut with a predetermined shape. Also, a polarization plate(not shown) is adhered to only the counter substrate. And, an FPC isadhered to the liquid crystal display device using a known technique.

The liquid crystal panel thus manufactured can be used as the displayportion of various electronic devices.

Embodiment 5

In this embodiment, an example that an EL (electro luminescence) displaydevice, which is also called a light emitting device or a light emittingdiode, is manufactured by using the present invention will be described.The EL device referred to in this specification include a triplet-basedlight emission device and a singlet-based light emission device, forexample. Note that, FIG. 18 is a cross sectional view of the EL displaydevice of the present invention.

In FIG. 18, a switching TFT 603 provided on a substrate 700 is formedusing the n-channel type TFT 503 of FIG. 14. Thus, this structure may bereferred to the description of the n-channel type TFT 503.

Note that, in this embodiment, a double gate structure in which twochannel forming regions are formed is used. However, a single gatestructure in which one channel forming region is formed, or a triplegate structure in which three channel forming regions are formed may beused.

A driver circuit provided on the substrate 700 is formed using the CMOScircuit (a n-channel type TFT 601 and p-channel type TFT 602) of FIG.14. Thus, this structure may be referred to the descriptions of then-channel type TFT 501 and the p-channel type TFT 502. Note that, inthis embodiment, the single gate structure is used. However, the doublegate structure or the triple gate structure may also be used.

Also, wirings 701 and 703 function as a source wiring of the CMOScircuit, a wiring 702 functions as a drain wiring thereof. A wiring 704functions as a wiring for electrically connecting a source wiring 708with a source region of the switching TFT. A wiring 705 functions as awiring for electrically connecting a drain wiring 709 with a drainregion of the switching TFT.

Note that, a current-controlled TFT 604 is formed using the p-channeltype TFT 502 of FIG. 14. Thus, this structure may be referred to thedescriptions of the p-channel type TFT 502. Note that, in thisembodiment, the single gate structure is used. However, the double gatestructure or the triple gate structure may be used.

Also, a wiring 706 is a source wiring (corresponding to a current supplyline) of the current-controlled TFT. Reference numeral 707 denotes anelectrode which is electrically connected with a pixel electrode 710 byoverlapping with the pixel electrode 710 of the current-controlled TFT.

Note that, reference numeral 710 denotes the pixel electrode (anode ofan EL element) made from a transparent conductive film. As thetransparent conductive film, a compound of indium oxide and tin oxide, acompound of indium oxide and zinc oxide, zinc oxide, tin oxide, orindium oxide can be used. Also, the transparent conductive film to whichgallium is added may be used. The pixel electrode 710 is formed on alevel interlayer insulating film 711 before the formation of the abovewirings. In this embodiment, it is very important to level a step in theTFT using the leveling film 711 made of resin. Since an EL layer formedlater is extremely thin, there is the case where insufficient lightemitting occurs due to the step. Thus, in order to form the EL layer aslevel as possible, it is desired that the step is leveled before theformation of the pixel electrode 710.

After the wirings 701 to 707 are formed, a bank 712 is formed as shownin FIG. 18. The bank 712 may be formed by patterning an insulating filmwith a thickness of 100 to 400 nm containing silicon or an organic resinfilm.

Note that, since the bank 712 is an insulating film, it is necessary topay attention to a dielectric breakdown of an element in the filmformation. In this embodiment, a carbon particle or a metal particle isadded to the insulating film which is a material of the bank 712 toreduce a resistivity. Thus, an electrostatic occurrence is suppressed.Here, an additional amount of the carbon particle or the metal particlemay be controlled such that the resistivity is 1×10⁶ to 1×10¹² Ωm(preferably, 1×10⁸ to 1×10¹⁰ Ωm).

An EL layer 713 is formed on the pixel electrode 710. Note that, onlyone pixel is shown in FIG. 18. However, in this embodiment, the ELlayers are formed corresponding to respective colors of R (red), G(green), and B (blue). Also, in this embodiment, a low molecular organicEL material is formed by an evaporation method. Concretely, copperphthalocyanine (CuPc) film with a thickness of 20 nm is provided as ahole injection layer, and a tris-8-quinolinolate aluminum complex (Alq₃)film with a thickness of 70 nm is provided thereon as a light emittinglayer. Thus, a lamination structure of those films is formed. A lightemitting color can be controlled by adding a fluorochrome such asquinacridon, perylene, or DCM1 to Alq₃.

Note that, the above example is one example of the organic EL materialwhich can be used as the EL layer, and it is unnecessary to be limitedto this example. The EL layer (layer for causing light to emit and acarrier to move for the emitting of light) may be formed by freelycombining the light emitting layer and a charge transport layer or acharge injection layer. For example, in this embodiment, although theexample that the low molecular organic EL material is used as the ELlayer is shown, a polymer organic EL material may be also used. Also, aninorganic material such as silicon carbide can be used as the chargetransport layer or the charge injection layer. A known material can beused as the organic EL material and the inorganic material.

Next, a cathode 714 made from a conductive film is provided on the ELlayer 713. In the case of this embodiment, an alloy film of aluminum andlithium is used as the conductive film. Of course, a known MgAg film(alloy film of magnesium and silver) may be used. As a cathode material,the conductive film made of an element which belongs to group 1 or group2 of the periodic table, or the conductive film to which those elementsare added may be used.

When this cathode 714 is formed, an EL element 715 is completed. Notethat, the EL element 715 completed here represents a capacitor formed bythe pixel electrode (anode) 710, the EL layer 713, and the cathode 714.

It is effective to provide a passivation film 716 so as to completelycover the EL element 715. As the passivation film 716, a single layer ofan insulating film containing a carbon film, a silicon nitride film, orsilicon nitride oxide film, or a lamination layer of a combination withthe insulating film is used.

Here, it is preferred that a film with a good coverage is used as thepassivation film, and it is effective to use the carbon film, inparticular a DLC (diamond like carbon) film. Since the DLC film can beformed in a range of a room temperature to 100° C., it can be easilyformed over the EL layer 713 with a low heat-resistance. Also, since theDLC film has a high blocking effect against oxygen, the oxidation of theEL layer 713 can be suppressed. Thus, the oxidation of the EL layer 713during the following sealing process can be prevented.

Further, a sealing member 717 is provided on the passivation film 716,and then a cover member 718 is adhered to the sealing member 717.Ultraviolet light cured resin may be used as the sealing member 717, andit is effective to provide a material having a hygroscopic effect or amaterial having an oxidation inhibition effect inside. Also, in thisembodiment, a member in which a carbon film (preferably, a diamondcarbon like film) is formed on both surfaces of, a glass substrate, aquartz substrate, or a plastic substrate (including a plastic film) isused as the cover member 718.

Thus, an EL display device of the structure as shown in FIG. 18 iscompleted. Note that, after the formation of the bank 712, it iseffective to successively perform the processes until the formation ofthe passivation film 716 using a film formation apparatus of a multichamber system (or an inline system) without exposing to air. Further,processes until the adhesion of the cover member 718 can be successivelyperformed without exposing to air.

Thus, n-channel TFTs 601 and 602, a switching TFT (n-channel TFT) 603,and a current control TFT (n-channel TFT) 604 are formed on theinsulator 700 in which a plastic substrate is formed as a base. Thenumber of masks required in the manufacturing process until now is lessthan that required in a general active matrix EL display device.

That is, the manufacturing process of the TFTs is largely simplified,and thus the improvement of yield and the reduction of a manufacturingcost can be realized.

Further, as described using FIG. 14, when the impurity regionsoverlapped with the gate electrode through the insulating film areprovided, the n-channel type TFT having a high resistant against thedeterioration due to a hot carrier effect can be formed. Thus, the ELdisplay device with high reliability can be realized.

In this embodiment, only the structures of the pixel portion and thedriver circuit are shown. However, according to the manufacturingprocess of this embodiment, logic circuits such as a signal separationcircuit, a D/A converter, an operational amplifier, and a correctioncircuit can be further formed on the same insulator. A memory and amicroprocessor can be also formed.

An EL light emitting device of this embodiment after the sealing(filling) process for protecting the EL element will be described usingFIG. 19. Note that, if necessary, reference symbols used in FIG. 18 arereferred to.

FIG. 19A is a top view representing the state after the sealing of theEL element, and FIG. 19B is a cross sectional view along a line A-A′ ofFIG. 19A. Reference numeral 801 shown by a dotted line denotes a sourceside driver circuit, reference numeral 806 denotes a pixel portion, andreference numeral 807 denotes a gate side driver circuit. Also,reference numeral 901 denotes a cover member, reference numeral 902denotes a first sealing member, and reference numeral 903 denotes asecond sealing member. A sealing member 907 is provided in the insidesurrounded by the first sealing member 902.

Note that, reference numeral 904 denotes a wiring for transmittingsignals inputted to the source side driver circuit 801 and the gate sidedriver circuit 807. The wiring 904 receives a video signal and a clocksignal from an FPC (flexible printed circuit) 905 as an external inputterminal. In FIG. 19A, although only the FPC is shown, a printed wiringboard (PWB) may be attached to the FPC. The EL display device in thisspecification includes not only the main body of the EL display devicebut also the EL display device to which the FPC or the PWB is attached.

Next, the cross sectional structure will be described using FIG. 19B.The pixel portion 806 and the gate side driver circuit 807 are formedover a substrate 700. The pixel portion 806 is formed by a plurality ofpixels each having a current control TFT 604 and a pixel electrode 710electrically connected with the drain region thereof. Also, the gateside driver circuit 807 is formed using the CMOS circuit in which ann-channel type TFT 601 and a p-channel type TFT 602 are combined witheach other (see FIG. 14).

The pixel electrode 710 functions as an anode of the EL element. Also,banks 712 are formed in both ends of the pixel electrode 710. An ELlayer 713 and a cathode 714 of the EL element are formed on the pixelelectrode 710.

The cathode 714 also functions as a wiring common to all pixels, and iselectrically connected with the FPC 905 through the connection wiring904. Further, all elements which are included in the pixel portion 806and the gate side driver circuit 807 are covered with the cathode 714and a passivation film 716.

Also, the cover member 901 is adhered to the resultant substrate 700 bythe first sealing member 902. Note that, in order to keep an intervalbetween the cover member 901 and the EL element, a spacer made of aresin film may be provided. Then, the inside of the first sealing member902 is filled with a sealing member 907. Note that, it is preferred thatepoxy resin is used as the first sealing member 902 and the sealingmember 907. Also, it is desired that the first sealing member 902 is amaterial to which moisture and oxygen are not penetrated as much aspossible. Further, a material having a hygroscopic effect or a materialhaving an oxidation inhibition effect may be contained in the sealingmember 907.

The sealing member 907 provided to cover the EL element also functionsas an adhesive for adhering the cover member 901 to the resultantsubstrate 700. Also, in this embodiment, FRP (fiberglass-reinforcedplastics), PVF (polyvinylfluoride), Mylar, polyester, or acrylic can beused as a material of a plastic substrate 901 a composing the covermember 901.

Also, after the adhering of the cover member 901 using the sealingmember 907, the second sealing member 903 is provided to cover sidesurfaces (exposed surfaces) of the sealing member 907. In the secondsealing member 903, the same material as that of the first sealingmember 902 can be used.

By sealing the EL element with the sealing member 907 with the abovestructure, the EL element can be completely shielded from the outside,and penetration of a substance (such as moisture or oxygen) whichprompts deterioration due to oxidation of the EL layer, from theoutside, can be prevented. Thus, the EL display device with highreliability is obtained.

Embodiment 6

TFT formed by implementing above Embodiments 1 to 5 of the presentinvention can be used in various electro-optical devices (such as anactive matrix liquid crystal display device, an active matrix EL displaydevice and an active matrix EC display device). Namely, the presentinvention can be implemented in all electronic appliance in which theseelectro-optical devices are built into a display portion.

The following can be given as such electronic appliance: a video camera,a digital camera, a projector, a head-mounted display (goggle typedisplay), a car navigation system, a car stereo, a personal computer,and a portable information terminal (such as a mobile computer, aportable telephone or an electronic book). Examples of these are shownin FIGS. 20, 21 and 22.

FIG. 20A is a personal computer, and it includes a main body 2001, animage input portion 2002, a display portion 2003, and a keyboard 2004,etc. The present invention can be applied to the display portion 2003.

FIG. 20B is a video camera, and it includes a main body 2101, a displayportion 2102, an audio input portion 2103, operation switches 2104, abattery 2105, and an image receiving portion 2106, etc. The presentinvention can be applied to the display portion 2102.

FIG. 20C is a mobile computer, and it includes a main body 2201, acamera portion 2202, an image receiving portion 2203, operation switches2204, and a display portion 2205. The present invention can be appliedto the display portion 2205.

FIG. 20D is a goggle type display, and it includes a main body 2301, adisplay portion 2302, an arm portion 2303, etc. The present inventioncan be applied to the display portion 2302.

FIG. 20E is a player that uses a recording medium on which a program isrecorded (hereafter referred to as a recording medium), and the playerincludes a main body 2401, a display portion 2402, a speaker portion2403, a recording medium 2404, and operation switches 2405, etc. Notethat this player uses a recording medium such as a DVD (digitalversatile disk) or a CD, and the appreciation of music, the appreciationof film, game playing and the Internet can be performed. The presentinvention can be applied to the display portion 2402.

FIG. 20F is a digital camera, and it includes a main body 2501, adisplay portion 2502, an eyepiece portion 2503, operation switches 2504,and an image receiving portion (not shown in the figure), etc. Thepresent invention can be applied to the display portion 2502.

FIG. 21A is a front projector, and it includes a projection system 2601,a screen 2602, etc. The present invention can be applied to a liquidcrystal display device 2808 which constitutes a part of the projectionsystem 2601, or other driver circuits.

FIG. 21B is a rear projector, and it includes a main body 2701, aprojection system 2702, a mirror 2703, a screen 2704, etc. The presentinvention can be applied to a liquid crystal display device 2808 whichconstitutes a part of the projection system 2702 or other drivercircuits.

Note that FIG. 21C is a diagram showing an example of the structure ofprojection systems 2601 and 2702 of FIGS. 21A and 21B. The projectionsystems 2601 and 2702 comprise an optical light source system 2801,mirrors 2802 and 2804 to 2806, a dichroic mirror 2803, a prism 2807, aliquid crystal display device 2808, phase differentiating plate 2809 anda projection optical system 2810. The projection optical system 2810comprises an optical system including a projection lens. The presentembodiment showed a three plate type, but it is not limited to thisstructure, and it may be for instance a single plate type. Further, theoperator may appropriately dispose an optical system such as an opticallens, a film having light polarizing function, a film for adjustingphase difference and an IR film, in the optical path shown by an arrowin the FIG. 21C.

FIG. 21D is a diagram showing an example of the structure of the opticallight source system 2801 of FIG. 21C. In the present embodiment theoptical light source system 2801 comprises a reflector 2811, a lightsource 2812, lens arrays 2813 and 2814, light polarizing conversionelement 2815 and a condenser lens 2816. Note that the optical lightsource system shown in FIG. 21D is merely an example and is notspecifically limited. For example, the operator may appropriatelydispose an optical system such as an optical lens, a film having lightpolarizing function, a film for adjusting phase difference and an IRfilm, etc., in the optical light source system.

Provided however, the projectors shown in FIG. 21 show a case of usingtransmission type electro-optical device and an application example ofreflection type electro-optical device and EL display device are notshown in the figures.

FIG. 22A is a portable telephone, and it includes a main body 2901, anaudio output portion 2902, an audio input portion 2903, a displayportion 2904, operation switches 2905, and an antenna 2906, etc. Thepresent invention can be applied to the display portion 2904.

FIG. 22B is a portable book (electronic book), and it includes a mainbody 3001, display portions 3002 and 3003, a recording medium 3004,operation switches 3005, and an antenna 3006, etc. The present inventioncan be applied to the display portions 3002 and 3003.

FIG. 22C is a display, and it includes a main body 3101, a support stand3102, and a display portion 3103, etc. The present invention can beapplied to the display portion 3103. The display of the presentinvention is advantageous for a large size screen in particular, and isadvantageous for a display equal to or greater than 10 inches(especially equal to or greater than 30 inches) in the opposite angle.

The applicable range of the present invention is thus extremely wide,and it is possible to apply the present invention to electronicappliance in all fields. Further, the electronic appliance of Embodiment6 can be realized by using a constitution of any combination ofEmbodiments 1 to 5.

Embodiment 7

This embodiment will be explained with reference to FIGS. 23A to 23C andFIGS. 24A to 24D.

First, a base insulating film 1011 is formed on a substrate 1010. Aglass substrate, a quartz substrate, a silicon substrate, a metalsubstrate or a stainless substrate having an insulating film formedthereon may be used as the substrate 1010. Further, a plastic substratewith heat-resistance, which can stand treatment temperature, may beused.

Besides, as the base insulating film 1011, an insulating film such as asilicon oxide film, a silicon nitride film or a silicon nitride oxidefilm is used. Here, although an example of a two-layer structure (1011a, 1011 b) as the base insulating film 1011 is shown, a single layerfilm or a lamination of two or more layers of the above insulating filmsmay be used. Note that, the base insulating film may not be formed.

Next, a semiconductor layer 1012 is formed on the base insulating film.A semiconductor film with an amorphous structure is formed by a knownmeans (sputtering method, LPCVD method, plasma CVE method or the like),a crystalline semiconductor film manufactured by conducting a knowncrystallization process (laser crystallization method, thermalcrystallization method, thermal crystallization method using a catalystsuch as nickel or the like) is patterned into a desired shape using afirst photo mask, and then the semiconductor layer 1012. The thicknessof the semiconductor layer 1012 is set from 25 to 80 nm (preferablybetween 30 and 60 nm). Although there is no limitation on thecrystalline semiconductor film material, it is preferable to be formedof a silicon or a silicon germanium (SiGe) alloy.

Next, an insulating film 1013 is formed covering the semiconductor layer1012.

As the insulating film 1013, a single layer or a laminate structure ofan insulating film containing silicon is formed with a thickness of 40to 150 nm by a plasma CVD method or a sputtering method. Note that, theinsulating film 1013 corresponds to a gate insulating film.

Next, a first conductive film 1014 with a thickness of 20 to 100 nm, anda second conductive film 1015 with a thickness of 100 to 400 nm arelaminated on the insulating film 1013 (FIG. 23A). Here, the firstconductive film 1014 made of a TaN film and the second conductive film1015 made of a W film are formed in lamination by using the sputteringmethod. Note that, although the first conductive film 1014 is made ofTaN and the second conductive film 1015 is made of W, there is nolimitation on the material. Both the first conductive film 1014 and thesecond conductive film 1015 may be formed of an element selected fromthe group consisting of Ta, W, Ti, Mo, Al, and Cu, of an alloy materialincluding one of the above elements as its main constituent, or of achemical compound of the above elements. Further, a semiconductor film,typically a polysilicon film, into which an impurity element such asphosphorous is doped, may also be used.

Next, a resist mask 1016 a is formed using a second photo mask, and afirst etching process is conducted using an ICP etching device. Thesecond conductive film 1015 is etched in the first etching process toobtain a second conductive layer 1017 a with a portion of a taperedshape (tapered portion) at the end portion, as shown in FIG. 23B. Notethat, although the first conductive film is slightly etched in the firstetching, this is not shown in the figure.

The angle of the tapered portion (taper angle) is defined as the angleformed by a surface of the substrate (horizontal surface) and a slantedportion of the tapered portion. The taper angle of the second conductivelayer 1017 a may be set in the range of 5° to 45° by appropriatelyselecting the etching conditions.

Next, a second etching process is performed using the resist mask 1016 aas it is with the ICP etching device. The first conductive film 1014 isetched in the second etching process to form a first conductive layer1018 a as shown in FIG. 23C. The first conductive layer 1018 a has afirst width (W1). Note that, in the second etching process, the resistmask, the second conductive layer and the insulating film are slightlyetched, and a resist mask 1016 b, a second conductive layer 1017 b andan insulating film 1019 a are formed, respectively.

Note that, two etching processes (the first etching process and thesecond etching process) are performed in order to suppress the reductionin the film thickness, but there is no limitation provided that anelectrode structure (a lamination of the second conductive layer 1017 band the first conductive layer 1018 a) is formed as shown in FIG. 24C.One etching process may be adopted.

Next, a third etching process is performed with the resist mask 1016 busing the ICP etching device. The second conductive layer 1017 b isetched in the third etching process to form a second conductive layer1017 c as shown in FIG. 23C. The second conductive layer 1017 c has asecond width (W2). Note that, in the third etching process, the resistmask, the first conductive layer and the insulating film are slightlyetched, and a resist mask 1016 c, a first conductive layer 1018 b and aninsulating film 1019 b are formed, respectively (FIG. 23D).

Thereafter, while the resist mask 1016 c is kept as it is, a firstdoping process is conducted. In the first doping process, through dopingis performed through the insulating film 1019 b using the firstconductive layer as a mask, and high concentration impurity regions 1020and 1021 are formed (FIG. 24A).

With such through doping, the doping amount into the semiconductor layercan be controlled at the desired value.

Next, while the resist mask 1016 c is kept as it is, a second dopingprocess is conducted. In the second doping process, through doping isperformed through the tapered portion of the first conductive layer 1018b and the insulating film 1019 b, and low concentration impurity regions1024 and 1025 are formed (FIG. 24B). Note that, in the second dopingprocess, the high concentration impurity regions 1020 and 1021 are alsodoped, and high concentration impurity regions 1022 and 1023 are formed.

Next, while the resist mask 1016 c is kept as it is, a fourth etchingprocess is conducted using an RIE etching device or the ICP etchingdevice. In the fourth etching process, a part of the tapered portion ofthe first conductive layer 1018 b is removed. Here, the first conductivelayer 1018 b with the first width (W1) becomes a first conductive layer1018 c with a third width (W3) (FIG. 24C).

In this embodiment, the first conductive layer 1018 c and the secondconductive layer 1017 c formed thereon become a gate electrode. Notethat, in the fourth etching process, the insulating film 1019 b is alsoetched, and an insulating film 1019 c is formed. Although an example, inwhich a part of the insulating film is removed to expose the highconcentration impurity regions, is shown here, there is no limitationand the high concentration impurity regions may be covered with a thininsulating film.

Thereafter, the resist mask 1016 c is removed, and activation of theimpurity element added into the semiconductor layer is performed. Then,after an interlayer insulating film 1027 is formed, a contact hole isformed using a third mask. A conductive film is formed, and thenelectrodes 1028 and 1029 are formed using a fourth mask.

As described above, a TFT with the structure shown in FIG. 24D can beformed using four photo masks.

Further, the characteristic of the TFT formed in accordance with thisembodiment is that the low concentration impurity region 1025, which isprovided between the channel forming region 1026 and the drain region1023, has almost no concentration difference and has a gentleconcentration gradient therein, and that the low concentration impurityregion 1025 includes a region 1025 a overlapping the gate electrode(1018 c) (GOLD region) and a region 1025 b not overlapping the gateelectrode (LDD region). Further, a peripheral portion of the insulatingfilm 1019 c, that is the upper portions of the region 1025 b notoverlapping the gate electrode and the high concentration impurityregions 1020 and 1021, have a tapered shape.

Embodiment 8

This embodiment will be explained below with reference to FIGS. 25A to25D and FIGS. 26A to 26D.

Note that, this embodiment is same as Embodiment 7 up to the firstetching process (FIG. 23B) and the same reference symbols are used.Further, FIG. 25A corresponds to FIG. 23A, and FIG. 25B corresponds toFIG. 23B.

First, the state of FIG. 23B is obtained in accordance with Embodiment7. Through this first etching process, the second conductive layer 1017a with a first width (X1) is formed.

Next, while the resist mask 1016 a is kept as it is, the first dopingprocess is performed. Through the first doping process, through dopingis performed through the first conductive film 1014 and the insulatingfilm 1013 using the second conductive layer 1017 a as a mask, and highconcentration impurity regions 1030 and 1031 are formed (FIG. 25C).

With such through doping, the doping amount into the semiconductor layercan be controlled at the desired value.

Next, the second etching process is performed using the resist mask 1016a as it is with the ICP etching device. The first conductive film 1014is etched in the second etching process to form a first conductive layer1034 a as shown in FIG. 25D. The first conductive layer 1034 a has asecond width (X2). Note that, in the second etching process, the resistmask, the second conductive layer and the insulating film are slightlyetched, and, a resist mask 1032 a, a second conductive layer 1033 a witha third width (X3) and an insulating film 1035 a are formed,respectively.

Next, a third etching process is performed using the resist mask 1032 awith the ICP etching device. The second conductive film 1033 a is etchedin the third etching process to form a second conductive layer 1033 b asshown in FIG. 26A. The second conductive layer 1033 b has a fourth width(X4). Note that, in the third etching process, the resist mask, thefirst conductive layer and the insulating film are slightly etched, anda resist mask 1032 b, a first conductive layer 1034 b and an insulatingfilm 1035 b are formed, respectively (FIG. 26A).

Next, while the resist mask 1032 b is kept as it is, the second dopingprocess is conducted. In the second doping process, through doping isperformed through the tapered portion of the first conductive layer 1034b and the insulating film 1035 b, and low concentration impurity regions1038 and 1039 are formed (FIG. 26B). Note that, in the second dopingprocess, the high concentration impurity regions 1030 and 1031 are alsodoped, and high concentration impurity regions 1036 and 1037 are formed.

Next, while the resist mask 1032 b is kept as it is, the fourth etchingprocess is conducted using an RIE etching device or the ICP etchingdevice. Through the fourth etching process, a part of the taperedportion of the first conductive layer 1034 b is removed. Here, the firstconductive layer 1034 b having the first width (X2) becomes a firstconductive layer 1034 c with a fifth width (X5) (FIG. 26C).

In this embodiment, the first conductive layer 1034 c and the secondconductive layer 1033 b formed thereon become a gate electrode. Notethat, in the fourth etching process, the insulating film 1035 b is alsoetched, and an insulating film 1035 c is formed. Although an example, inwhich a part of the insulating film is removed to expose the highconcentration impurity regions, is shown here, there is no limitation.The high concentration impurity regions may be covered with a thininsulating film.

Thereafter, the resist mask 1032 b is removed, and activation of theimpurity element added into the semiconductor layer is performed. Then,after an interlayer insulating film 1041 is formed, a contact hole isformed using a third mask. A conductive film is formed, and thenelectrodes 1042 and 1043 are formed using a fourth mask.

As described above, a TFT with the structure shown in FIG. 26D can beformed using four photo masks.

Further, the characteristic of the TFT formed in accordance with thisembodiment is that the low concentration impurity region 1039, which isprovided between a channel forming region 1040 and the drain region1037, has almost no concentration difference and has a gentleconcentration gradient therein, and that the low concentration impurityregion 1039 includes a region 1039 a overlapping the gate electrode(1034 c) (GOLD region) and a region 1039 b not overlapping the gateelectrode (LDD region). Further, a peripheral portion of the insulatingfilm 1035 c, that is the upper portions of the region 1039 b notoverlapping the gate electrode and the high concentration impurityregions 1037 and 1036 have a tapered shape.

Embodiment 9

This embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG. 25C and FIGS.27A to 27D.

Note that, this embodiment is same as Embodiment 8 up to the firstdoping process (FIG. 25C) and the figures are omitted. Further, the samereference symbols in FIGS. 25A to 25C are used here.

First, the state of FIG. 25C is obtained in accordance with Embodiment7.

Next, the second etching process is performed using the resist mask 1016a with the ICP etching device. The second conductive layer 1017 a isetched in the second etching process to form a second conductive layer1051 as shown in FIG. 27A. The second conductive layer 1051 has a secondwidth (Y2). Note that, in the second etching process, the resist maskand the first conductive film are slightly etched, and a resist mask1050 and a first conductive film 1052 a are formed, respectively (FIG.27A). Note that, a part of the first conductive film has already beenslightly etched in the first etching process, and therefore the part ofthe first conductive film 1052 a is further made thinner. Further, theportion of the first conductive film 1052 a not overlapping the secondconductive layer, which has not been etched, is made into a taperedshape.

Next, while the resist mask 1050 is kept as it is, a second dopingprocess is conducted. In the second doping process, through doping isperformed through the tapered portion of the first conductive film 1052a and the insulating film 1013, and low concentration impurity regions1053 and 1054 are formed (FIG. 27B). Note that, in the second dopingprocess, the high concentration impurity regions 1030 and 1031 are alsodoped, and high concentration impurity regions 1055 and 1056 are formed.

With such through doping, the doping amount into the semiconductor layercan be controlled at the desired value.

Next, while the resist mask 1050 is kept as it is, a third etchingprocess is performed using the RIE etching device or the ICP etchingdevice. The thinned portion through the first etching process and a partof the tapered portion of the exposed first conductive film 1052 a isremoved through the third etching process. Here, a first conductivelayer 1052 b with a tapered portion and a third width (Y3) is formedwith appropriately adjusting the etching conditions while taking thethickness of the first conductive film, the thickness of the insulatingfilm and the like into consideration (FIG. 27C).

In this embodiment, the first conductive layer 1052 b and the secondconductive layer 1051 formed thereon become a gate electrode. Note that,in the third etching process, the insulating film 1013 is also etched,and an insulating film 1057 is formed.

Thereafter, the resist mask 1050 is removed, and activation of theimpurity element added into the semiconductor layer is performed. Then,after an interlayer insulating film 1059 is formed, a contact hole isformed using a third mask. After a conductive film is formed, electrodes1060 and 1061 are formed using a fourth mask.

As described above, a TFT having the structure shown in FIG. 27D can beformed using four photo masks.

Further, the characteristic of the TFT formed in accordance with thepresent invention is that the low concentration impurity region 1054,which is provided between a channel forming region 1058 and the drainregion 1056, has almost no concentration difference and has a gentleconcentration gradient therein, and that the low concentration impurityregion 1056 includes a region 1054 a overlapping the gate electrode(1052 b) (GOLD region) and a region 1054 b not overlapping the gateelectrode (LDD region).

Embodiment 10

In this embodiment, a method of simultaneously manufacturing a pixelportion and TFTs (n-channel TFTs and p-channel TFT) of a driver circuitprovided in the periphery of the pixel portion is explained in detailwith reference to FIGS. 28A to 30.

First, in this embodiment, a substrate 1100 is used, which is made fromglass, such as barium borosilicate glass or aluminum borosilicate glass,represented by Corning #7059 glass and #1737 glass. Note that, there isno limitation on the substrate 1100, provided that the substrate hastransmissivity, and a quartz substrate may also be used. A plasticsubstrate having heat resistance to a process temperature in thisembodiment may also be used.

Then, a base film 1101 comprised of an insulating film such as a siliconoxide film, a silicon nitride film or a silicon nitride oxide film isformed. In this embodiment, a two-layer structure is used for the basefilm 1101. However, a single layer film or a lamination film of two ormore layers of the insulating film may be used. As a first layer of thebase film 1101, a silicon nitride oxide film 1101 a is formed with athickness of 10 to 200 nm (preferably 50 to 100 nm) using SiH₄, NH₃, andN₂O as reaction gases by a plasma CVD method. In this embodiment, thesilicon nitride oxide film 1110 a (composition ratio Si=32%, O=27%,N=24% and H=17%) having a film thickness of 50 nm is formed. Then, as asecond layer of the base film 1101, a silicon nitride oxide film 1101 bis formed so as to be laminated on the first layer with a thickness of50 to 200 nm (preferably 100 to 150 nm) using SiH₄ and N₂O as reactiongases by the plasma CVD method. In this embodiment, the silicon nitrideoxide film 1101 b (composition ratio Si=32%, O=59%, N=7% and H=2%)having a film thickness of 100 nm is formed.

Subsequently, semiconductor layers 1102 to 1105 are formed on the basefilm. The semiconductor layers 1102 to 1105 are formed of asemiconductor film having an amorphous structure by a known method (suchas a sputtering method, an LPCVD method or a plasma CVD method), and issubjected to a known crystallization process (such as a lasercrystallization method, a thermal crystallization method, or a thermalcrystallization method using a catalyst such as nickel). The crystallinesemiconductor film thus obtained is patterned into desired shapes toobtain the semiconductor layers. The semiconductor layers 1102 to 1105are formed into a thickness of 25 to 80 nm (preferably 30 to 60 nm). Thematerial of the crystalline semiconductor film is not particularlylimited, but it is preferable to form the film using silicon, a silicongermanium (Si_(x)Ge_(1-x) (0<X<1, typically X=0.0001 to 0.05)) alloy, orthe like. In case of forming silicon germanium, it may be formed by aplasma CVD method using a gas mixture of silane and germanium, it may beformed by an ion injection method injecting germanium into a siliconfilm, or it may be formed by a sputtering method using a target formedof silicon germanium. In this embodiment, the plasma CVD method is used,and after a 55 nm thick amorphous silicon film is formed, a solutioncontaining nickel is held onto the amorphous silicon film.Dehydrogenation of the amorphous silicon film is performed (500° C. forone hour), and thereafter a thermal crystallization process is performed(550° C. for four hours) thereto. Further, to improve the crystallinity,a laser annealing process is performed to form a crystalline siliconfilm. Then, this crystalline silicon film is subjected to a patterningprocess using a photolithography method, to obtain the semiconductorlayers 1102 to 1105.

Further, after the formation of the semiconductor layers 1102 to 1105,doping (also referred to as channel doping) of a minute amount ofimpurity element (boron or phosphorus) may be performed in order tocontrol a threshold value of the TFT.

Besides, in the case where the crystalline semiconductor film ismanufactured by a laser crystallization method, a pulse oscillation typeor a continuous emission type excimer laser, YAG laser, or YVO₄ lasermay be used. In the case where those lasers are used, it is appropriateto use a method in which laser light radiated from a laser oscillator iscondensed into a linear beam by an optical system, and is irradiated toa semiconductor film. Although the conditions of the crystallizationshould be properly selected by an operator, in the case where theexcimer laser is used, a pulse oscillation frequency is set to 30 Hz,and a laser energy density is set from 100 to 400 mJ/cm² (typically 200to 300 mJ/cm²). In the case where the YAG laser is used, it isappropriate that the second harmonic is used to set a pulse oscillationfrequency from 1 to 10 kHz, and a laser energy density is set from 300to 600 mJ/cm² (typically, 350 to 500 mJ/cm²). Then, laser lightcondensed into a linear shape with a width of 100 to 1000 μm, forexample, 400 μm is irradiated to the whole surface of the substrate, andan overlapping ratio (overlap ratio) of the linear laser light at thistime may be set from 80 to 98%.

Next, a gate insulating film 1106 is formed for covering thesemiconductor layers 1102 to 1105. It is desirable to clean the surfaceof the semiconductor layer before the formation of the gate insulatingfilm. The removal of contaminated impurities (typically, C, Na or thelike) on the film surface may be conducted such that after the surfaceis cleaned with pure water containing ozone, the film surface isslightly etched using an acid solution containing fluorine. As a methodin which the film surface is slightly etched, it is an effective method,in which the acid solution containing fluorine held on the film surfaceis scattered by spinning the substrate with a spinning device. As theacid solution containing fluorine, fluoric acid, hydrofluoric acid,ammonium fluoride, buffered fluoric acid (mixed solution of fluoric acidand ammonium fluoride), mixed solution of fluoric acid and hydrogenperoxide, or the like may be used. After the cleaning, the gateinsulating film 1107 is formed of an insulating film containing siliconby the plasma CVD method or the sputtering method with a film thicknessof from 40 to 150 nm, preferably 50 to 100 nm. In this embodiment, thegate insulating film 1107 is formed of a silicon nitride oxide film witha thickness of 110 nm by the plasma CVD method (composition ratioSi=32%, O=59%, N=7%, and H=2%). Of course, the gate insulating film isnot limited to the silicon nitride oxide film, and other insulatingfilms containing silicon may be formed into a single layer or alamination structure.

Besides, when the silicon oxide film is used, it can be formed by theplasma CVD method such that TEOS (tetraethyl orthosilicate) and O₂ aremixed with a reaction pressure of 40 Pa and at a substrate temperatureof from 300 to 400° C., and discharged at a high frequency (13.56 MHZ)power density of 0.5 to 0.8 W/cm². The silicon oxide film thusmanufactured can have good characteristics as the gate insulating filmby subsequent thermal annealing at 400 to 500° C.

Then, as shown in FIG. 28A, on the gate insulating film 1106, a firstconductive film 1107 and a second conductive film 1108 are laminated tohave a film thickness of 20 to 100 nm and 100 to 400 nm, respectively.It is preferable that the gate insulating film, the first conductivefilm and the second conductive film are formed in succession withoutexposure to the atmosphere in order to prevent contamination. Further,in case the where those films are not formed in succession, thecontamination on the film surface can be prevented if a film formingdevice equipped with a washer is used. The cleaning method may beperformed the same as that performed before the formation of the gateinsulating film. In this embodiment, the first conductive film 1107 madeof a TaN film with a film thickness of 30 nm and the second conductivefilm 1108 made of a W film with a film thickness of 370 nm are formed insuccession. The TaN film is formed by sputtering with a Ta target in anitrogen containing atmosphere. Besides, the W film is formed by thesputtering method with a W target. The W film may be formed by a thermalCVD method using tungsten hexafluoride (WF₆). Whichever method is used,it is necessary to make the material have low resistance for use as thegate electrode, and it is preferred that the resistivity of the W filmis set to 20 μΩcm or less. By making the crystal grains large, it ispossible to make the W film have lower resistivity. However, in the casewhere many impurity elements such as oxygen are contained within the Wfilm, crystallization is inhibited and the resistance becomes higher.Therefore, in this embodiment, by forming the W film by sputtering usinga target having a high purity (purity of 99.9999% or 99.99%), and inaddition, by taking sufficient consideration to prevent impuritieswithin the gas phase from mixing therein during the film formation, aresistivity of from 9 to 20 μΩcm can be realized.

Note that, in this embodiment, although the first conductive film 1107is made of TaN, and the second conductive film 1108 is made of W, thematerial is not particularly limited thereto, and both the films may beformed of an element selected from the group consisting of Ta, W, Ti,Mo, Al, Cu, Cr and Nd or an alloy material or a compound materialcontaining the above elements as its main constituent. Besides, asemiconductor film typified by a polycrystalline silicon film doped withan impurity element such as phosphorus may be used. An AgPdCu alloy maybe used. Further, a combination of the first conductive film formed of atantalum (Ta) film and the second conductive film formed of a W film, acombination of the first conductive film formed of a titanium nitride(TiN) film and the second conductive film formed of a W film, acombination of the first conductive film formed of a tantalum nitride(TaN) film and the second conductive film formed of an Al film, and acombination of the first conductive film formed of a tantalum nitride(TaN) film and the second conductive film formed of a Cu film may beadopted.

Next, masks 1109 to 1112 made from resist are formed using aphotolithography method, and a first etching process is performed inorder to form electrodes and wirings. This first etching process isperformed with the first and second etching conditions. In thisembodiment, as the first etching conditions, an ICP (inductively coupledplasma) etching method is used, a gas mixture of CF₄, Cl₂ and O₂ is usedas an etching gas, the gas flow rate is set to 25/25/10 sccm, and aplasma is generated by applying a 500 W RF power (13.56 MHZ) to a coilshape electrode at 1 Pa. A dry etching device with ICP (Model E645-□ICP)manufactured by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is used here. A150 W RF power (13.56 MHZ) is also applied to the substrate side (testpiece stage), effectively applying a negative self-bias voltage. The Wfilm is etched with the first etching conditions, and the end portion ofthe second conductive layer is formed into a tapered shape. In the firstetching conditions, the etching rate for W is 200.39 nm/min, the etchingrate for TaN is 80.32 nm/min, and the selectivity of W to TaN is about2.5. Further, the taper angle of W is about 26° in accordance with thefirst etching conditions. Note that, etching with the first etchingconditions corresponds to the first etching process (FIG. 23B) describedin Embodiment 7.

Thereafter, the first etching conditions are changed to the secondetching conditions without removing the masks 1109 to 1112 made ofresist, a gas mixture of CF₂ and Cl₂ is used as an etching gas, the gasflow rate is set to 30/30 sccm, and a plasma is generated by applying a500 W RF power (13.56 MHZ) to a coil shape electrode at 1 Pa, therebyperforming etching for about 30 seconds. A 20 W RF power (13.56 MHZ) isalso applied to the substrate side (test piece stage), effectivelyapplying a negative self-bias voltage. The W film and the TaN film areboth etched on the same order with the second etching conditions inwhich CF₄ and Cl₂ are mixed. In the second etching conditions, theetching rate for W is 58.97 nm/min, and the etching rate for TaN is66.43 nm/min. Note that, the etching time may be increased byapproximately 10 to 20% in order to perform etching without any residueon the gate insulating film. In addition, etching with the secondetching conditions corresponds to the second etching process (FIG. 23C)described in Embodiment 7.

In the first etching process, the end portions of the first and secondconductive layers are formed to have a tapered shape due to the effectof the bias voltage applied to the substrate side by adopting a suitableshape of the masks formed from resist (FIG. 28B). The angle of thetapered portions may be set to 15 to 45°. Thus, first shape conductivelayers 1113 to 1116 (first conductive layers 1113 a to 1116 a and secondconductive layers 1113 b to 1116 b) constituted of the first conductivelayers and the second conductive layers are formed by the first etchingprocess. The width of the first conductive layers in a channel lengthdirection corresponds to W1 shown in Embodiment 7. Reference numeral1117 indicates a gate insulating film, and regions of the gateinsulating film not covered by the first shape conductive layers 1113 to1116 are made thinner by etching approximately 20 to 50 nm.

Thereafter, a second etching process is performed without removing themasks made of resist. A gas mixture of CF₄, Cl₂ and O₂ is used as anetching gas, the gas flow rate is set to 25/25/10 sccm, and a plasma isgenerated by applying a 500 W RF power (13.56 MHZ) to a coil shapeelectrode at 1 Pa, thereby performing etching. A 20 W RF power (13.56MHZ) is also applied to the substrate side (test piece stage),effectively applying a negative self-bias voltage. In the second etchingprocess, the etching rate for W is 124.62 nm/min, the etching rate forTaN is 20.67 nm/min, and the selectivity of W to TaN is 6.05.Accordingly, the W film is selectively etched. The taper angle of W is70° by the second etching process. Second conductive layers 1122 b to1125 b are formed by the second etching process. On the other hand, thefirst conductive layers 1113 a to 1116 a are hardly etched, and firstconductive layers 1122 a to 1125 a are formed. Note that, the secondetching process here corresponds to the third etching process describedin Embodiment 7 (FIG. 23D). Further, the width of the second conductivelayers in the channel length direction corresponds to W2 shown inEmbodiment 7.

Then, a first doping process is performed to add an impurity element forimparting an n-type conductivity to the semiconductor layer withoutremoving the masks made of resist (FIG. 28C). Doping may be carried outby an ion doping method or an ion injecting method. The condition of theion doping method is that a dosage is 1×10¹³ to 5×10¹⁵ atoms/cm², and anacceleration voltage is 60 to 100 keV. In this embodiment, the dosage is1.5×10¹⁵ atoms/cm² and the acceleration voltage is 80 keV. As theimpurity element for imparting the n-type conductivity, an elementbelonging to group 15 of the periodic table, typically phosphorus (P) orarsenic (As) is used, but phosphorus (P) is used here. In this case, theconductive layers 1113 to 1116 become masks to the impurity element toimpart the n-type conductivity, and high concentration impurity regions1118 to 1121 are formed in a self-aligning manner. The impurity elementto impart the n-type conductivity in the concentration range of 1×10²⁰to 1×10²¹ atoms/cm³ is added to the high concentration impurity regions1118 to 1121. Note that, the first doping process here corresponds tothe first doping process (FIG. 24A) described in Embodiment 7.

Next, a second doping process is performed and the state of FIG. 28D isobtained. Second conductive layers 1122 b to 1125 b are used as masks toan impurity element, and doping is performed such that the impurityelement is added to the semiconductor layer below the tapered portionsof the first conductive layers. In this embodiment, phosphorus (P) isused as the impurity element, and plasma doping is performed with thedosage of 3.5×10¹² atoms/cm² and the acceleration voltage of 90 keV.Thus, low concentration impurity regions 1126 to 1129, which overlapwith the first conductive layers, are formed in a self-aligning manner.The concentration of phosphorus (P) added to the low concentrationimpurity regions 1126 to 1129 is 1×10¹⁷ to 1×10¹⁸ atoms/cm³, and has agentle concentration gradient in accordance with the film thickness ofthe tapered portions of the first conductive layers. Note that, in thesemiconductor layer that overlaps with the tapered portions of the firstconductive layers, the concentration of impurity element slightly fallsfrom the end portions of the tapered portions of the first conductivelayers toward the inner portions, but the concentration keeps almost thesame level. Further, an impurity element is added to the highconcentration impurity regions 1118 to 1121 to form high concentrationimpurity regions 1130 to 1133. Note that, the second doping process herecorresponds to the second doping process (FIG. 24B) described in

Note that, in Embodiment 7, although the high concentration impurityregions are formed in the first doping process and the low concentrationimpurity regions are formed in the second doping process, there is nolimitation. The low concentration impurity regions may be formed in thefirst doping process and the high concentration impurity regions may beformed in the second doping process. Further, the high concentrationimpurity regions and the low concentration impurity regions may beformed in one doping process by appropriately adjusting the thicknessesof the insulating film and the first conductive layer, the dopingconditions or the like.

Thereafter, a third etching process is performed without removing themasks made of resist. The tapered portions of the first conductivelayers are partially etched to thereby reduce the regions that overlapwith the semiconductor layer in the third etching process. Here, CHF₃ isused as an etching gas, and a reactive ion etching method (RIE method)is used. In this embodiment, the third etching process is performed withthe chamber pressure of 6.7 Pa, the RF power of 800 W, the CHF₃ gas flowrate of 35 sccm. Thus, first conductive layers 1138 to 1141 are formed(FIG. 29A). Note that, the third etching process here corresponds to thefourth etching process (FIG. 24C) described in Embodiment 7. Further,the width of the first conductive layers in the channel length directioncorresponds t6 W3 shown in Embodiment 7.

In the third etching process, the insulating film 1117 is etched at thesame time, a part of the high concentration impurity regions 1130 to1133 is exposed, and insulating films 1143 a to 1143 d and 1144 areformed. Note that, in this embodiment, the etching condition thatexposes the part of the high concentration impurity regions 1130 to 1133is used, but it is possible that a thin layer of the insulating film isleft in the high concentration impurity regions if the thickness of theinsulating film or the etching condition is changed.

Through the third etching process, impurity regions (LDD regions) 1134 ato 1137 a are formed, which do not overlap with the first conductivelayers 1138 to 1141. Note that, impurity regions (GOLD regions) 1134 bto 1137 b remain overlapped with the first conductive layers 1138 to1141.

The electrode formed by the first conductive layer 1138 and the secondconductive layer 1122 b becomes a gate electrode of an n-channel TFT ofa driver circuit to be formed in the later process. The electrode formedby the first conductive layer 1139 and the second conductive layer 1123b becomes a gate electrode of a p-channel TFT of the driver circuit tobe formed in the later process. Similarly, the electrode formed by thefirst conductive layer 1140 and the second conductive layer 1124 bbecomes a gate electrode of an n-channel TFT of a pixel portion to beformed in the later process, and the electrode formed by the firstconductive layer 1141 and the second conductive layer 1125 b becomes oneof the gate electrodes of a storage capacitor of the pixel portion to beformed in the later process.

By doing so, in this embodiment, the difference between the impurityconcentration in the impurity regions (GOLD regions) 1134 b to 1137 bthat overlap with the first conductive layers 1138 to 1141 and theimpurity concentration in the impurity regions (LDD regions) 1134 a to1137 a that do not overlap with the first conductive layers 1138 to 1141can be made small, thereby improving the TFT characteristics.

Next, the masks formed from resist are removed, masks 1145 and 1146 arenewly formed from resist, and a third doping process is performed. Inaccordance with the third doping process, impurity regions 1147 to 1152are formed, in which the impurity element imparting a conductivity(p-type) opposite to the one conductivity (n-type) is added to thesemiconductor layer that becomes an active layer of the p-channel TFT(FIG. 29B). The first conductive layers 1139 and 1141 are used as masksto the impurity element, and the impurity element that imparts thep-type conductivity is added, to thereby form impurity regions in aself-aligning manner. In this embodiment, the impurity regions 1147 to1152 are formed by an ion doping method using diborane (B₂H₆). Notethat, in the third doping process, the semiconductor layer forming then-channel TFT is covered with the masks 1145 and 1146 formed fromresist. Although phosphorus is added to the impurity regions 1145 and1146 at different concentrations in accordance with the first and seconddoping processes, the doping process is performed such that theconcentration of the impurity element imparting p-type conductivity isin the range of 2×10²⁰ to 2×10²¹ atoms/cm³ in any of the impurityregions. Thus, the impurity regions function as the source region andthe drain region of the p-channel TFT so that no problem occurs. In thisembodiment, a part of the semiconductor layer that becomes an activelayer of the p-channel TFT is exposed by the third etching process, andthus there is an advantage that an impurity element (boron) is easilyadded.

In accordance with the above-described processes, the desired impurityregions are formed in the respective semiconductor layers.

Next, the masks 1145 and 1146 made of resist are removed, and a firstinterlayer insulating film (a) 1153 a is formed. The first interlayerinsulating film (a) 1153 a is formed of an insulating film containingsilicon with a thickness of 50 to 100 nm by the plasma CVD method or thesputtering method. In this embodiment, a 50 nm thick silicon nitrideoxide film is formed by the plasma CVD method. Of course, the firstinterlayer insulating film (a) 1153 a is not limited to the siliconnitride oxide film, and other insulating film containing silicon may beformed into a single layer or a lamination structure.

Then, a step of activating the impurity elements added in the respectivesemiconductor layers is performed (FIG. 29C). This activation process iscarried out by a thermal annealing method using an annealing furnace.The thermal annealing method may be performed in a nitrogen atmospherehaving an oxygen concentration of 1 ppm or less, preferably 0.1 ppm orless and at 400 to 700° C., typically 500 to 550° C. In this embodiment,an activation process with a heat treatment at 550° C. for 4 hours iscarried out. Note that, other than the thermal annealing method, a laserannealing method, or a rapid thermal annealing method (RTA method) canbe applied thereto.

Note that, in this embodiment, at the same time as the activationprocess, nickel used as the catalyst for crystallization is gettered tothe impurity regions (1130, 1132, 1147 and 1150) containing phosphorousat a high concentration. As a result, mainly nickel concentration of thesemiconductor layer that becomes a channel forming region is lowered.The TFT having a channel forming region thus formed is decreased in offcurrent value, and has high electric field effect mobility because ofgood crystallinity, thereby attaining satisfactory characteristics.

Further, an activation process may be performed before the formation ofthe first interlayer insulating film. However, in the case where theused wiring material is weak against heat, it is preferable that theactivation process is performed after an interlayer insulating film (aninsulating film containing silicon as its main constituent, for example,silicon nitride film) is formed in order to protect the wiring or thelike as in this embodiment.

Moreover, a laser annealing method may be performed as the activationprocess, and laser light of an excimer laser, a YAG laser or the likemay be irradiated.

Next, a first interlayer insulating film (b) 1153 b is formed. The firstinterlayer insulating film (b) 1153 b is formed of an insulating filmcontaining silicon with a thickness of 50 to 200 nm by the plasma CVDmethod or the sputtering method. In this embodiment, a 100 nm thicksilicon nitride film is formed by the plasma CVD method. Of course, thefirst interlayer insulating film (b) 1153 b is not limited to thesilicon nitride film, and other insulating films containing silicon maybe formed into a single layer or a lamination structure.

Next, heat treatment is performed for 1 to 12 hours at 300 to 550° C. inan inert atmosphere to perform hydrogenation of the semiconductor layer.The hydrogenation is preferably performed at a lower temperature thanthe heat treatment temperature in the activation process (400 to 500°C.) (FIG. 29D). In this embodiment, a thermal processing is performedfor one hour at 410° C. in a nitrogen atmosphere. This process is a stepfor terminating dangling bonds in the semiconductor layer by hydrogencontained in the interlayer insulating film. Hydrogenation by thermalprocessing for 1 to 12 hours at 300 to 550° C. in an atmospherecontaining 3 to 100% of hydrogen or plasma hydrogenation (using hydrogenexcited by plasma) may be performed as other means of hydrogenation.

Further, thermal activation (typically in a nitrogen atmosphere at 500to 550° C.) is performed after the resist masks 1145 and 1146 made ofresist are removed, and then hydrogenation (in a nitrogen atmosphere at300 to 500° C.) may be performed after forming the first interlayerinsulating film (typically, a silicon nitride film with a thickness of100 to 200 nm) made of an insulating film containing silicon.

Next, a second interlayer insulating film 1154 made of an organicinsulating material is formed on the first interlayer insulating film(b) 1153 b. In this embodiment, an acrylic resin film with a thicknessof 1.6 μm is formed.

Next, a transparent conductive film with a thickness of 80 to 120 nm isformed on the second interlayer insulating film 1154, and a pixelelectrode 1162 is formed by patterning. For the transparent conductivefilm, an alloy of indium oxide and zinc oxide (In₂O₃—ZnO) and zinc oxide(ZnO) are suitable materials, and further zinc oxide added with gallium(Ga) (ZnO:Ga) may be preferably used to increase the transmittivity orconductivity of visible light.

Note that, here, an example of using a transparent conductive film as apixel electrode is shown, but if a conductive material havingreflectivity is used to form a pixel electrode, a reflection typedisplay device may be formed.

Then, patterning is performed for forming the contact holes reaching therespective impurity regions 1130, 1132, 1147, and 1150.

In a driver circuit 1205, electrodes 1155 to 1158 to which the impurityregions 1130 and 1147, are respectively electrically connected, areformed. Note that, the electrodes are formed by patterning thelamination film of a Ti film with a thickness of 50 nm and an alloy filmwith a thickness of 500 nm (an alloy film of Al and Ti).

In a pixel portion 1206, a connection electrode 1160 contacting theimpurity region 1132 or a source electrode 1159 is formed, and aconnection electrode 1161 contacting the impurity region 1150 is formed.Note that, the connection electrode 1160 forms an electrical connectionto a drain region of a pixel TFT by being formed contacting andoverlapping the pixel electrode 1162. Further, the connection electrode1160 is electrically connected to the semiconductor layer (impurityregion 1150) which functions as one of the electrodes forming thestorage capacitor (FIG. 30).

In the manner as described above, the driver circuit 1205 including ann-channel TFT 1201 and a p-channel TFT 202, the pixel portion 1206including a pixel TFT 1203 and a storage capacitor 1204 may be formed onthe same substrate. In this specification, such a substrate is called anactive matrix substrate for convenience.

The n-channel TFT 1201 of the driver circuit 1205 includes a channelforming region 1163, a low concentration impurity region 1134 b (GOLDregion) overlapping with the first conductive layer 1138 partiallyforming the gate electrode, a low concentration impurity region 1134 a(LDD region) formed outside the gate electrode, and a high concentrationimpurity region 1130 functioning as a source region or a drain region.Also, the p-channel TFT 1202 includes a channel forming region 1164, animpurity region 1149 overlapping with the first conductive layer 1139partially forming the gate electrode, the impurity region 1148 formedoutside the gate electrode, and the impurity region 1147 functioning asa source region or a drain region.

The pixel TFT 203 of the pixel portion 1206 includes a channel formingregion 1165, a low concentration impurity region 1136 b (GOLD region)overlapping with the first conductive layer 1140 forming the gateelectrode, an impurity region 1136 a (LDD region) formed outside thegate electrode, and the high concentration impurity region 1132functioning as a source region or a drain region. Besides, impurityelements imparting p-type conductivity are added to the respectivesemiconductor layers 1150 to 1152 functioning as one of the electrodesof the storage capacitor 1204. The storage capacitor 1204 is formed bythe electrodes 1125, 1142 and the semiconductor layers 1150 to 1152, and1166, using the insulating film 1144 as a dielectric material.

Further, in accordance with the process steps of this embodiment, thenumber of photomasks necessary for manufacturing the active matrixsubstrate may be made as six. As a result the number of processes may bereduced, to thereby reduce the manufacturing cost and improve the yield.

Embodiment 11

In this embodiment, the process of forming an active matrix liquidcrystal display device from the active matrix substrate manufactured inEmbodiment 10 is described below with reference to FIG. 31.

In accordance with Embodiment 7, after obtaining the active matrixsubstrate in the state as shown in FIG. 30, an orientation film 1167 isformed on the active matrix substrate in FIG. 30 and a rubbing processis performed. Note that, in this embodiment, before forming theorientation film 1167, a columnar spacer is formed in a desired positionfor maintaining a gap between the substrates by patterning an organicresin film of an acrylic resin film or the like. Further, in place ofthe columnar spacer, a spherical spacer may be scattered over the entiresubstrate.

Subsequently, an opposing substrate 1168 is prepared. In the opposingsubstrate, a color filter with a colored layer 1174, a light shieldinglayer 1175 arranged corresponding to each pixel is provided. Further, alight shielding layer 1177 is provided in the driver circuit portion. Aleveling film 1176 for covering the color filter and the light shieldingportion 1177 is formed. Next, an opposing electrode 1169 made of atransparent conductive film is formed in the pixel portion on theleveling film 1176, and an orientation film 1170 is formed on the entiresurface of the opposing substrate to perform the rubbing process.

Then, the active matrix substrate on which the pixel portion and thedriver circuit are formed and the opposing substrate are stuck togetherby a sealing member 1171. A filler is mixed into the sealing agent 1171,and two substrates are stuck together by this filler and a columnarspacer while keeping a uniform gap. Thereafter, a liquid crystalmaterial 1173 is injected between both the substrates, and is completelyencapsulated by an encapsulant (not shown). A known liquid crystalmaterial may be used as the liquid crystal material 1173. In thismanner, the active matrix liquid crystal display device shown in FIG. 31is completed. If necessary, the active matrix substrate or the opposingsubstrate may be parted into a desired shape. Further, a polarizingplate or the like is provided by using a known technique. An FPC isadhered using a known technique.

The liquid crystal display panel manufactured in this way may be used asa display portion of various electronic equipments.

Embodiment 12

In this embodiment, a manufacturing method of an active matrix substratehaving a structure different to that in Embodiment 10 is described usingFIG. 32. In Embodiment 10, a transmission type display device is formed,but this embodiment, is featured in that a reflection type displaydevice is formed to reduce the number of masks as compared to Embodiment10.

Note that, the process through the formation of the second interlayerinsulating film 1154 is the same as Embodiment 10, and therefore thedescription thereof will be omitted.

In accordance with Embodiment 10, after the second interlayer insulatingfilm 1154 is formed, patterning is performed to form the contact holesreaching respective impurity regions.

Then, in the driver circuit, as in Embodiment 10, a part of thesemiconductor layer (a high concentration impurity region) andelectrodes respectively electrically connected thereto are formed. Notethat, these electrodes are formed by patterning the lamination film of aTi film with a thickness of 50 nm and an alloy film with a thickness of500 nm (an Al and Ti alloy film).

In a pixel portion, a pixel electrode 1302 contacting a highconcentration impurity region 1300, or a source electrode 1303contacting a high concentration impurity region 1301 is formed. Notethat, the pixel electrode 1302 forms an electrical connection to thehigh concentration impurity region 1300 of a pixel TFT, and furtherforms an electrical connection to a semiconductor layer functioning asone of the electrodes forming the storage capacitor (high concentrationimpurity region 1304) (FIG. 32).

Note that, as a material for the pixel electrode 1302, a film with Al orAg as the main component, or a material with an excellent reflectivitysuch as lamination films of the above components is preferably used.

Further, according to the processes shown in this embodiment, the numberof photomasks necessary for manufacturing the active matrix substratemay be five. As a result, the number of processes may be reduced, tothereby reduce the manufacturing cost and improve the yield.

Further, after the pixel electrodes are formed, it is preferable thatthe process of a known method such as sandblasting or etching issupplemented to make the surface uneven to prevent the reflection on themirror surface, and the reflected light is scattered in order toincrease the whiteness. Further, unevenness may be formed on theinsulating film before forming the pixel electrodes, and the pixelelectrodes may be formed thereon.

Embodiment 13

In this embodiment, the process of forming a reflection type liquidcrystal display device from the active matrix substrate formed inEmbodiment 12 is described below with reference to FIG. 33.

First, according to Embodiment 12, after obtaining the active matrixsubstrate in the state as shown in FIG. 32, an orientation film isformed on the active matrix substrate of FIG. 32 on at least the pixelelectrode, and a rubbing process is thus performed. Note that, in thisembodiment before forming the orientation film, an organic resin filmsuch as an acrylic resin film is patterned to form a columnar spacer(not shown) for maintaining the gap between the substrates in thedesired position. Further, in place of the columnar spacer, a sphericalspacer may be scattered on the entire surface of the substrate.

Next, an opposing substrate 1404 is prepared. On the opposing substrateis provided a color filter with a colored layer and a light shieldinglayer arranged corresponding to each pixel. Next, a leveling film isformed covering the color filter.

Next, an opposing electrode formed of a transparent conductive film onthe leveling film is formed at least in the pixel portion, anorientation film is formed on the entire surface of the opposingsubstrate and a rubbing process is performed.

Then, an active matrix substrate 1403 formed with a pixel portion 1401and a driver circuit 1402, and an opposing substrate 1404 are stucktogether with a sealing member 1406. The sealing material 1406 is mixedwith a filler, and the two substrates are stuck together while keeping auniform gap by the effect of this filler and the columnar spacer.Thereafter, a liquid crystal material 1405 is injected between both thesubstrates to encapsulate the substrates completely by an encapsulant. Aknown liquid crystal material may be used for the liquid crystalmaterial 1405. Note that, this embodiment is a reflection type liquidcrystal display device, so that the gap between both the substrates isabout half that shown in Embodiment 11. Accordingly, the reflection typeliquid crystal display device is completed. If necessary, the activematrix substrate or the opposing substrate is parted into a desiredshape. Further, a polarizing plate 1407 is adhered to just the opposingsubstrate. Then, an FPC is attached using a known technique.

The reflection type liquid crystal display panel manufactured in thisway may be used as a display portion of the various electricalequipments.

Further, with just the liquid crystal display panel, there occurs aproblem in visibility in a case where it is used in a dark place.Therefore, a structure having a light source, a reflector and a lightconducting plate as shown in FIG. 33, is preferable.

As a light source, a single or a plurality of LEDs or cold-cathode tubesmay be used. The light source shown in FIG. 33 is arranged along theside surface of the light conducting plate and provided with a reflectorbehind the light source.

When, the light irradiated from the light source efficiently enters theinside from the side surface of the light conducting plate by thereflector, the light is reflected by a special prism processed surfaceprovided on the surface to enter the liquid crystal display panel.

In this way, by combining the liquid crystal display panel, the lightsource and the light conducting plate, the light usage efficiency may beimproved.

Embodiment 14

In this embodiment, an example of a manufacturing method different fromthat of Embodiment 10 is shown. Note that, this embodiment only differsfrom Embodiment 10 in the process until the formation of thesemiconductor layers 1102 to 1105, and the processes thereafter are thesame as in Embodiment 10, and therefore the description is omitted.

First, a substrate is prepared as in Embodiment 10. In a case atransmission type display device is manufactured, a glass substrate, aquartz substrate, or the like may be used as the substrate. Further, aplastic substrate having a heat resistivity that may resist thetreatment temperature may be used. Further in the case that a reflectiontype liquid crystal display device is manufactured, in addition, aceramic substrate, a silicon substrate, a metal substrate, or astainless substrate with an insulating film on the surface may be used.

Next, a base film made of an insulating film such as a silicon oxidefilm, a silicon nitride film or a silicon nitride oxide film is formedon the substrate. In this embodiment, a two layer structure is used forthe base film, but a structure with a single layer film or lamination oftwo or more layers of the insulating film may be used. In thisembodiment, a first layer and a second layer of the base film are formedusing a plasma CVD method to continuously form the films in the firstfilm forming chamber. As the first layer of the base film, a siliconnitride oxide film is formed with a thickness of 10 to 200 nm(preferably 50 to 100 nm) by a plasma CVD method with SiH₄, NH₃ and N₂Oas reaction gases. In this embodiment, a silicon nitride oxide film(composition ratio Si=32%, O=27%, N=24%, H=17%) with a thickness of 50nm is formed. Then, as the second layer of the base film, a siliconnitride oxide film formed by a plasma CVD method with SiH₄ and N₂O asreaction gases is laminated with a thickness of 50 to 200 nm (preferably100 to 150 nm). In this embodiment, a silicon nitride oxide film(composition ratio Si=32%, O=59%, N=7%, H=2%) with a thickness of 100 nmis formed.

Next, an amorphous semiconductor film is formed on the base film in thesecond film forming chamber. An amorphous semiconductor film is formedwith a thickness of 30 to 60 nm, there is no limitation on a material ofan amorphous semiconductor film, but preferably it is formed of siliconor a silicon germanium alloy. In this embodiment, an amorphous siliconfilm is formed using SiH₄ gas by a plasma CVD method.

Further, since the base film and the amorphous semiconductor film may beformed with the same film forming method, the base film and theamorphous semiconductor film may be formed continuously.

Next, Ni is added to the amorphous silicon film in the third filmforming chamber. An electrode containing Ni as a material is attached bya plasma CVD method, argon gas is introduced into the third film formingchamber to generate plasma, and Ni is added. Of course, a very thin filmof Ni may be formed by using an evaporation method or a sputteringmethod.

Next, a protective film is formed in the fourth film forming chamber. Asthe protecting film, a silicon oxide film, a silicon nitride oxide film,or the like may be used. In performing dehydrogenation at a later stage,a compact layer such as a silicon nitride should not be used sincehydrogen does not leave easily. In this embodiment, TEOS (tetrathylorthosilicate) and O₂ are mixed, to form a silicon oxide film with athickness of 100 to 150 nm. This embodiment is featured in that acontinuous processing may be performed without exposure to the cleanroom atmosphere up to the formation of the silicon oxide film as theprotecting film.

Further, any known forming methods such as a plasma CVD method, athermal CVD method, a decompression CVD method, an evaporation methodand a sputtering method may be used as to the film formed in each filmformation chamber.

Next, dehydrogenation of an amorphous silicon film (500° C., one hour)is performed, and thermal crystallization is performed (550° C., fourhours). Note that, the method is not limited to adding a catalystelement such as Ni as shown in this embodiment, and thermalcrystallization may be performed by known methods.

Then, in order to control the threshold (Vth) of the n-channel TFT, animpurity element imparting a p-type conductivity is added. Elements ofgroup 13 of the periodic table such as boron (B), aluminum (Al) andgallium (Ga) are known as impurity elements imparting a p-typeconductivity to the semiconductor. In this embodiment, boron (B) isadded.

After adding boron, a silicon oxide film which is a protecting film isremoved with an etching solution such as fluoric acid. Next, acontinuous processing of washing and laser annealing is performed. Byperforming laser annealing processing after adding boron (B) which is animpurity element imparting a p-type conductivity to the amorphoussemiconductor film, boron becomes a part of crystal structure of acrystalline semiconductor film when crystallization occurs, wherebydamage to the crystal structure which occurs with the conventionaltechnique, may be prevented.

Here, by using purified water containing ozone and an acid solutionincluding fluorine, the very thin oxide film to be formed in washingwith purified water containing ozone, and contaminated impurity stuck tothe film surface may be removed. As a manufacturing method of purifiedwater containing ozone, there is a method of electrolysis of purifiedwater or a method of melting ozone gas directly into the purified water.Further, the concentration of ozone is preferably set at 6 mg/L or more.Note that, the number of rotations and time conditions of a spin device,may be appropriately found according to a substrate area, a material ofa film and the like.

As a laser annealing method, a method of linearly condensing laser lightradiated from a laser oscillator with an optical system and irradiatingthe linear laser light to the semiconductor film may be used. Theconditions of crystallization by laser annealing may be appropriatelyselected by the operator.

The crystalline semiconductor film thus obtained is patterned into adesired shape to form island-like semiconductor films 102 to 105.

As to the subsequent processes, the liquid crystal display panel shownin FIG. 31 can be formed in accordance with Embodiment 10.

Note that this embodiment may be implemented in combination with any oneof Embodiments 10 to 13.

According to the present invention, a width of the low concentrationimpurity region (GOLD region) which is overlapped with the gateelectrode and a width of the low concentration impurity region (LDDregion) which is not overlapped with the gate electrode can be freelycontrolled. Also, the concentration difference between the GOLD regionand the LDD region in the TFT formed in accordance with the presentinvention is hardly produced. Thus, in the GOLD region overlapped withthe gate electrode, a relaxation of electric field concentration isachieved and then a hot carrier injection can be prevented. Also, in theLDD region which is not overlapped with the gate electrode, an increaseof the off-current value can be suppressed.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of manufacturing a semiconductor devicecomprising steps of: forming an insulating film over a semiconductor;forming a metal film over said insulating film; patterning said metalfilm to form a first metal layer and a second metal layer, so that apart of the insulating film is exposed wherein the part of theinsulating film includes a first region between the first metal layerand the second metal layer and a second region other than the firstregion; and etching the first region of the insulating film, the secondregion of the insulating film, the first metal layer and the secondmetal layer simultaneously by an Inductively-Coupled-Plasma etching,wherein gas including CHF3 is used in the Inductively-Coupled-Plasmaetching.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the semiconductoris formed over an insulating surface.
 3. The method according to claim1, wherein the metal film is patterned in order to form a gateelectrode.
 4. A method of manufacturing a semiconductor devicecomprising steps of: forming an insulating film over a semiconductor;forming a metal film over said insulating film; patterning said metalfilm; and etching both said insulating film and the patterned metal filmsimultaneously by an Inductively-Coupled-Plasma etching so that a partof the semiconductor is exposed.
 5. The method according to claim 4,wherein the semiconductor is formed over an insulating surface.
 6. Themethod according to claim 4, wherein the metal film is patterned inorder to form a gate electrode.
 7. The method according to claim 4,wherein gas including CHF3 is used in the Inductively-Coupled-Plasmaetching.
 8. A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device comprisingsteps of: forming a first insulating film over a semiconductor; forminga metal film over the first insulating film; patterning said metal film;etching both the first insulating film and the patterned metal filmsimultaneously by an Inductively-Coupled-Plasma etching; and forming asecond insulating film so as to cover the patterned metal film, whereingas including CHF3 is used in the Inductively-Coupled-Plasma etching. 9.The method according to claim 8, wherein the semiconductor is formedover an insulating surface.
 10. The method according to claim 8, whereinthe metal film is patterned in order to form a gate electrode.
 11. Amethod of manufacturing a semiconductor device comprising steps of:forming a first insulating film over a semiconductor; forming a metalfilm over the first insulating film; patterning said metal film; etchingboth the first insulating film and the patterned metal filmsimultaneously by an Inductively-Coupled-Plasma etching so that a partof the semiconductor is exposed; and forming a second insulating film soas to cover the patterned metal film, wherein said second insulatingfilm is in contact with the exposed semiconductor.
 12. The methodaccording to claim 11, wherein the semiconductor is formed over aninsulating surface.
 13. The method according to claim 11, wherein themetal film is patterned in order to form a gate electrode.
 14. Themethod according to claim 11, wherein gas including CHF3 is used in theInductively-Coupled-Plasma etching.